All financial information in Canadian dollars.

• Financial overview: Cascades experienced a nearly 4% increase in sales for all of 2023, while Q4 brought a 5% sequential sales decline for containerboard and results that the company said were “below expectations.” Specialty products sales increased 2% sequentially in Q4. Executives on Thursday’s Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings call reported optimism from the ramp up of Cascades’ new containerboard plant in Bear Island, Virginia, which started production last spring. That mill achieved a break-even point in Q4 and should begin “contributing” this year, said Charles Malo, president and chief operating officer at Cascades Containerboard Packaging.
• Closures: This month, Cascades announced the planned closures of three U.S. and Canadian containerboard facilities in Newtown, Connecticut; Belleville, Ontario; and Trenton, Ontario (which was already idled). CEO Mario Plourde reiterated during the call that these sites would have required significant capital investments and the aging equipment bears higher operating costs. Cascades’ annual report mirrors the initial closure announcement in saying capacity will be shifted to more modern facilities, and Plourde said on the earnings call that the Trenton mill closure will remove approximately 36,000 short tons of capacity in Q1. Executives would not disclose the expected financial benefits from the closures but said they would occur throughout 2024. 
• Pricing questions: Debate is circulating over whether customers are accepting the average $70 per ton price hikes that most fiber companies, including Cascades, announced would start this year. Fastmarkets RISI’s Pulp & Paper Week Index showed no price increases in January and only about a $40 per ton rise in February. Malo said on the call that Cascades is “still continuing to work towards achieving” the increases, and the company ultimately anticipates about a $50 per ton increase. But in the end, “a price increase is always a discussion between our customers and us,” Malo said. 
• Pricing outlook: Executives do not expect benefits from price increases to show in Q1 results; they should begin in Q2 and be fully implemented by Q4, which will add approximately $50 million to the company’s 2024 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
• 2024 outlook: Cascades expects higher containerboard sales volumes in Q1 compared with Q4 but lower financial results, both year over year and sequentially. It plans for 18,000 short tons worth of downtime in Q1, following softer demand in Q4 2023. Executives declined to give detailed financial projections for the rest of the year given the economic environment. However, they disclosed the expectation to fall short of the $5 billion consolidated sales objective for the year.