Two U.S. Companies, International Firm Interested in Resuming Papermaking at Bucksport

 

According to an article published this week by the Portland Press Herald, Portland, Maine, USA, two new companies on Monday announced their interest in potentially purchasing and restarting the Bucksport paper mill, which Verso Paper Corp., Memphis, Tenn., plans to sell to a scrap metal company.

In letters addressed to U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr., representatives of Minimill Technologies Inc. of Syracuse, N.Y.,, and Fibre Technologies of Reading, Penn., claim their companies would like the opportunity to explore the purchase of the paper mill, which employed more than 500 people until it closed this past December 31. They are the second and third companies to express interest in purchasing the mill. The CEO of Kejriwal Singapore International wrote a letter to Woodcock on Friday of last week that says his company is interested in purchasing the Bucksport mill.

The letters from Minimill Technologies and Fibre Technologies came the day before a court hearing in which Woodcock will consider whether to block Verso’s planned sale of the mill to AIM Development LLC, a subsidiary of American Iron and Metal, a Montreal scrap metal recycler.

Minimill Technologies has experience constructing and converting paper mills in the newsprint and packaging sectors. It was responsible for the construction and operation of Solvay Paperboard, a recycled containerboard mill in Solvay, N.Y., and the Cascades/Norampac recycled containerboard mill in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Besides its Syracuse office, Minimill also has an office in Chennai, India. Fibre Technologies also has experience in converting unprofitable paper mills to ones producing more profitable products.

The Bucksport mill produced coated paper used in magazines and catalogs before Verso closed it in December. The coated paper market in North America has been shrinking, which is why Minimill Technologies and Fibre Technologies would seek to convert the mill to produce a different type of paper product.

The mill could also serve Asian markets. In his letter to Woodcock on Friday, Rahul Kejriwal, CEO of Kejriwal Singapore International, expressed his company’s interest in purchasing the Bucksport mill from Verso and rehiring several hundred people to operate it. In the letter, Kejriwal claims his Mumbai, India-based company has more than $1 billion in sales and more than 8,000 employees in 23 countries.