ST.BRUNO, Que. (CP) — Cardboard producer Norampac Industries Inc., a unit of Cascades Canada Inc, has agreed to join two U.S. companies to set up a joint venture corrugated sheet producer in Buffalo, N.Y.
Norampac said late Thursday it will join Jamestown Container and Smurfit-Stone to create a new company called Niagara Sheet LLC.
Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.
''The participation of Norampac in this joint venture follows the trend of our investment strategy, which aims to consolidate our expansion in the United States and enable us to ensure the quality of our products and the satisfaction of our customers,'' said Marc-Andre Depin, president and CEO of Norampac.
''This investment will facilitate the supply of Norampac's corrugated products plant located in Lancaster, N.Y., due to its geographical proximity with the new facility.''
Norampac owns seven containerboard mills and 26 corrugated products plants in the United States, Canada and France, with an annual production capacity of more than 1.3 million tons.
Smurfit-Stone is a major integrated manufacturer of paperboard and paper-based packaging and one of the world's largest paper recyclers. The Chicago company operates 170 mills and employs 22,000 people.
Jamestown Container is a western New York company that makes items like custom box packaging, custom plastic packaging and litho laminated containers to wholesale shipping supplies, contract packaging services and product package design.
The company has plants in Cleveland as well as Buffalo, Rochester, Falconer and Lockport in New York.
Montreal-based Cascades produces, transforms and markets packaging products, tissue paper and fine papers, with operations in North American and Europe and nearly 14 000 employees.