Clearwater Paper Corp., the Spokane-based maker of tissue and paperboard products, says a recent U.S. District Court decision will enable the company to move forward with a major component of its new tissue manufacturing and converting facility in Shelby, N.C.

Because of the June 20 ruling, made in the District of South Carolina, Clearwater has been allowed to take delivery of a Through-Air-Dried paper machine manufactured by Metso Paper USA Inc., of Aiken, S.C. Clearwater spokesman Matt Van Vleet says the company expects to have that machine, referred to as a TAD machine, operational by the end of the year.

Van Vleet says the TAD machine will enable Clearwater to make large rolls of high-end bathroom tissue that then can be cut and processed into conventional rolls of toilet paper.

He declines to disclose the cost of the TAD machine, but says Clearwater's total investment in the Shelby plant will be between $260 million and $280 million.

Some operations already are up and running at the plant, which includes 1 million square feet of space "under roof," Van Vleet says.

A competing tissue maker, First Quality Tissue SE LLC, had sued Metso Paper in August 2011 in an attempt to prevent delivery of the TAD machine to Clearwater. First Quality said in its lawsuit that by selling such a machine to the Spokane-based company, Metso Paper had breached its contract with First Quality, which restricted sales of TAD tissue machines for a limited period of time.

A First Quality executive says in a press release that even though the court declined to stop the Clearwater sale, he was pleased that the court acknowledged that Metso Paper had breached its contract.

Van Vleet says the company's initial agreement with Metso Paper called for the equipment to be delivered by this July, and the project remains on schedule.

Clearwater operates 15 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada, making private-label tissue for grocery and drug stores, as well and mass merchants and discount retailers.

For the first quarter of this year, Clearwater reported net income of $3.7 million, or 16 cents a diluted share, compared with net income of $5.6 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.