Photo: Ronald HissinkA 2nd pig farm has been infected with African Swine Fever (ASF) in the western German state Hesse This time the virus was found in a commercial finisher farm The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) reported that the virus was found near Stockstadt am Rhein in the district Groß-Gerau The ministry of Agriculture of the state Hesse reported that in total 3 dead pigs were reported to the veterinary authorities on Wednesday An additional 10 other animals were said to have shown symptoms The state laboratory confirmed the suspicion hence the entire farm population will have to be culled Find the latest information on the African Swine Fever virus here The 1st outbreak in Hesse happened on 8 July the number of infected wild boar has grown to 38 In total 192 wild boar carcasses have been tested All infected carcasses were found in the Groß-Gerau district The outbreaks in the state Hesse and in the neighbouring state Rhineland-Palatinate form a new chapter in the outbreaks of ASF in Germany The country has had infections in its wild boar population along the eastern border with Poland since 2020 Apart from 2 incidental occurrences of infections on farms near the French and Dutch borders the virus never made it to the western part of the country now 11 farms with domestic pigs have got infected in the whole of Germany Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Sappi has said it will commence a consultation process on the possible closure of its Stockstadt mill in Germany after a planned sale of the site fell through earlier this year Sappi had struck a deal to sell three European mills and the Kirkniemi Mill in Finland to Aurelius Group but the transaction failed to complete At the time it had been described as a “complex carve-out” and was subject to various conditions including approvals from competition and regulatory authorities In April Sappi said the sale had “not materialised within the agreed timeframe of the contractual agreement and therefore the agreement has lapsed” The enterprise value of the Aurelius deal had been approximately €272m (£243m at the time) Aurelius had expected the mills to deliver sales of more than €1bn including discussions with other potential buyers it became evident that “selling the mill as a going concern was not possible” Consultations have therefore commenced on the mill’s future with mill management which will include the potential closure of the mill and the sale of the site is that the pulp mill and paper machine will close but customers would continue to be served from other Sappi mills Stockstadt is an integrated pulp and paper mill producing 145,000tpa of pulp and 220,000tpa of coated and uncoated woodfree paper mainly sold into the European print market Printweek welcomes informed debate, but please read our House Rules before posting Printweek is the premier website for the print industry Some are necessary and we can’t switch them off Others help us to provide you with the best possible service We use cookies to personalise content and ads to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic We also share anonymous information about your use of our site with our social media By accepting cookies you will be helping us to continue to provide you with the best possible service Senior managers often find themselves in a juggling act during their working lives Toni Kiesel sometimes finds this even extends to conversations Except the things that Toni is juggling are not ideas or concepts managing partner of Kiesel (all photos courtesy Weissengurber & Partner) managing partner of the company that bears his family name prefaces one remark with: “Sometimes I am speaking for Kiesel and on another occasion I speak about Coreum The relationship he describes is thus: Kiesel is the group – with a reputation founded on its role as a dealer and service partner for a range of big names in machinery and attachments Its entry on the website of the European Demolition Association says it has a clear mandate to develop complete innovative solutions to improve machine power and efficiency part training and educational establishment The first dig into the ground at the 80,000 sq m (860,000 sq ft) site at Stockstadt am Rhein in central Germany – it is less than half an hour’s drive from Frankfurt Airport and is well positioned for the pan-European hub that Toni intends it to become – was in July 2017 and the official opening took place 15 months later for a project that aims to be so all-embracing of Europe’s demolition and recycling industry its name does not even come from one single word It is a mix of “core” – the heart or centre – and “forum” “It will be a meeting place for the industry,” said Toni “It will be a focal point for innovation and technology and if we want to get a better image for our industry I think this is the ideal place as a showroom for that.” While Kiesel is the principal investor in Coreum more than 30 companies have joined as partners with more expected as the project grows Interest has not been limited to manufacturers – the Deutscher Abbruchverband (German Demolition Association) has used the facility for driver training schools again with the future image of the industry in mind Kiesel itself has a thriving apprenticeship scheme with many of those involved staying on with the company after finishing their education The futuristic interior of Coreum in Germany The company’s industry presence has been a huge help in getting the project off the ground – it has franchises on an exclusive basis with the likes of Hitachi and Fuchs and was one of the first companies to introduce OilQuick to the market in the late 1990s – but that is only part of the story as far as Toni is concerned “Coreum is also about the companies that we don’t work with,” he said “As a family enterprise Kiesel can look at the niche areas where it has become the benchmark to look for solutions to make their customers more profitable At the end of the day I am convinced that the process is one of the only things where the customer can optimise his business reduce costs and give additional service and advantages “Most manufacturers develop a machine and then look around to see what is happening in the market We work out what is necessary to do the job and then out of this we develop the right tools and machines.” with the start of the world’s largest construction equipment exhibition days rather than weeks ahead Toni sees Coreum as a complementary – and necessary – adjunct to the giant Munich trade show “We have had a lot of companies here at Coreum training for Bauma companies bringing their annual or quarterly meetings to the site some of the machines on show will move here and if the customer wants to come and see a machine he can do so at a time when he has the time to be able to see it That’s why we have a 600 sq m (6,450 sq ft 3 m (10 ft) deep indoor ‘sandpit’ for testing machines But how much time does the customer have there Half of the customers we probably won’t see With maybe another 20% we will get five minutes for a quick walk around beside the product You could easily spend half a day or a full day learning about the full process of the industry.” Kiesel does indeed need Bauma and it will be there representing a business based on around 3,750 units sold in 2018 a presence in 12 European countries and a turnover of €500 million (close to US$600 million) It will show machines from both the standard and performance versions of its KMC demolition excavator range I believe the demolition industry needs dedicated machines for the job site and one size can’t fit all They are tool carriers and it is the optimum combination of quick coupler and attachment that makes the customer successful Its recent focus has been on developing battery-driven zero emission excavators for urban environments and confined spaces The company’s ZE (zero emission) range will be on show too Kteg and Hitachi entered a joint venture to form the European Application Centre (EAC) and bring the respective fields of expertise of the two companies together The move has put Kteg in charge of developing solutions for the European market “On one side we have Japanese quality and standard products,” said Toni “We also have some specialised products like tunnel excavators “But on the other hand people need a solution for Europe especially customers in the central and northern parts of Europe Hitachi is a premium partner in Coreum and part of the joint venture that launched the European Application Centre with Kiesel company Kteg is driving us in a direction to mechanise job sites more and more so we have a big problem with skilled people and with enough drivers and on that front the image of this industry is old style The machines are high-tech and the driver must be very skilled but it’s not a very attractive business for newcomers but it’s very difficult to get the image on this level where it should be.” There is also a special projects group currently working on digitalisation particularly combining information from different brands of machine the future will be about building on the roots put down in the past 18 months in the shape of Coreum and over a much longer period for the company in general both physically in terms of a planned expansion to 120,000 sq m (1.3 million sq ft) and intellectually with the new ideas and solutions that will develop from the growth of the site it’s about being the system partner for the customer,” concluded Toni With us the customer has a partner who takes care of everything “There are lot of things coming up from Kteg side together with the EAC but you have to see the products; I am convinced about this Last week we had a customer from South Africa He was coming for a material handler and he left with the idea ‘I need three KMCs’ The Sunday TimesIt is the spiritual home of Strictly Come Dancing but Blackpool has been described by the show’s new judge who was born in South Africa but became a star in Germany on Let’s Dance first visited the Lancashire resort as a 17-year-old schoolgirl to take part in the Blackpool Dance Festival in the Winter Gardens she explained to German readers of her autobiography is the “mecca” of the British dancing world the biggest dance hall in the world with room for 3,000 people Bussell: stepping downIAN WESTStrictly Come Dancing decamps to Blackpool every November for a live special Further reduces exposure to the graphic paper segment Sappi has confirmed the closure of its Lanaken Mill in Belgium a move that will take out more than half a million tonnes of coated woodfree paper production for the heatset web offset market The consultation was announced just over three months ago At the time Sappi cited significant overcapacity in graphic paper along with the global economic downturn and geopolitical instability the group confirmed that production at the mill ceased in December Sappi Lanaken Mill was an integrated pulp and paper mill It employed 581 workers and had a production capacity of 165,000tpa of pulp that was used to produce 530,000tpa of high-quality coated woodfree HSWO paper – mainly sold into the European print market The mill was one of the largest employers in the area A social plan has been agreed for the employees and Sappi expects the closure of the site to be completed in Q2 2024 our strategic focus includes reducing exposure to the graphic paper segment while expanding our presence in packaging “Sappi Europe is focused on building a sustainably resilient company This requires evaluating the future of all facets of the business based on market dynamics and the market segments Sappi believe will be strongest in the future.” Sappi expects to disclose details about the total financial impact in its Q1 results The previously-announced closure of Sappi’s Stockstadt Mill in Germany – which had produced 220,000tpa of coated and uncoated woodfree paper – is expected to be completed in Q1 The two closures will take out around 30% of Sappi’s prior graphic paper capacity Sappi previously said that the closures would “significantly improve” the utilisation of its remaining graphic paper assets as well as improving its fixed cost position It also said it was confident it would be able to switch the sales volume to its other mills Sappi Europe’s seven remaining mills have a combined capacity of 1,985,000tpa of graphic papers and 720,000tpa of packaging and speciality papers Sappi had global sales of $5.8bn (£4.58bn) in the financial year ending September 2023