The Tasman Mill site is a pulp and paper mill located on Fletcher Avenue just outside the town of Kawerau in New Zealand. The Tasman Mill site is the largest single employer in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region. Three pulp or paper companies operate in Kawerau. Within the original Tasman Mill site are Norske Skog who operate the mechanical pulp mill and paper mill, and Carter Holt Harvey who operate the kraft pulp mill. The third, but physically separate mill on Fletcher Avenue is SCA who manufacture tissue and base paper. A sawmill is located to the north of the main Tasman Mill site and is also operated by Carter Holt Harvey. The mills contribute in excess of $1billion to the New Zealand economy per annum.[1]
In 1952 the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company established a mill to process timber from maturing stands of Radiata Pine in the state-owned Kaingaroa Forest. The site was chosen because of the ready availability of geothermal steam as a power source. Pulping operations were underway by 1955.[2]
In the 1970s a number of expansion projects took place within the mill which in turn lead to a significant increase in employees. More recently, introduction of new technology, coupled with the decline of the timber industry from 1980 onwards, has seen large scale redundancies occur across the mill.[3] The 2,000 strong workforce of the mid-1980's had dropped to 1,200 by 1998.[4]
The accessibility of geothermal energy recently saw the construction of an on-site 100-megawatt Geothermal power station. The plant provides cost certainty to industry operating within the mill, the second largest industrial power user in the country.[1]
Currently Carter Holt Harvey processes approximately 1.25 million cubic metres of wood annually, converting it into specialty bleached and unbleached pulp for use in the manufacture of paper, tissue and building products.[5] Forty percent is subsequently sold to customers in New Zealand, primarily Norske Skog.[6]
Today Norske Skog Tasman supplies all of New Zealand's newsprint and telephone directory requirements and also provides around thirty percent of Australia's newsprint requirements. Annual paper production is now 300,000 tonnes from the company's two paper machines.[7] A third paper machine was recently closed in an attempt to remain competitive in the overseas market. SCA also purchases pulp from Carter Holt Harvey for manufacture of base paper for their brands Purex and Libra, among others.
The balance of production from both Norske Skog and Carter Holt Harvey is exported throughout Asia and Oceania earning export income of $224 million.[7]