NewPage Corp. closed its Kimberly, Wisconsin, mill at the end of August. The Kimberly mill operated two paper machines, Nos. 96 and 97, producing approximately 500,000 tons of coated freesheet paper annually.

 

NewPage plans to repurpose other machines such that it expects the net effect of this closure to be approximately 200,000 tons less coated freesheet and 300,000 tons less coated groundwood produced annually.

 

NewPage Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark A. Suwyn cited weak demand and higher production costs as the reasons for the closure. Suwyn said, “The coated paper market is being hit with a slowdown in demand as the uncertain economy is reflected in a reduction in print advertising. At the same time, we are experiencing higher input costs for raw materials and transportation driven by oil and natural gas prices. To balance the somewhat reduced demand in a manner that helps us reduce costs, we are closing our mill in Kimberly, Wisconsin. We continue to work to offset the negative influences by raising prices and driving productivity programs harder…. We are proactively taking this step to stay on our committed path to achieve financial returns that exceed our cost of capital.”

 

NewPage noted that Kimberly mill was inefficient in that it did not have a pulp mill to support its operations. Since purchased pulp has become more expensive, NewPage said the cost to run this facility was much higher than that of their other fully-integrated mills.

 

Approximately 475 employees were affected by the shutdown of Kimberly. This is in addition to the 125 employees affected by the shutdown of Kimberly No. 95 paper machine in May 2008.

 

 

NewPage papers used by Lane Press customers: Dependoweb, Sterling, Vision