According to NewPage, te decision was based on a combination of factors, including unfavorable exchange rates between the U.S. and Canadian dollars and high utility and shipping costs, which have rendered its Port Hawkesbury mill operations unprofitable for more than a year. The decision to take downtime on PM 1 and PM 2 was made now, the company adds, to mitigate the potential impact on customers and already has taken into consideration the planned downtime for future scheduling.
The company expects to fulfill certain pre-existing orders for its supercalendered papers from its mill in Duluth, Minn., but does not produce newsprint from any other mill location and therefore will be unable to serve these customers during the downtime.
"Despite the continued dedication and efforts of our team at Port Hawkesbury to drive cost improvements, extremely challenging economic conditions at this location have forced us to make this difficult, but necessary business decision," said George Martin, president and CEO of NewPage.
According on and to this is the a Mark Lukacs, SVP, Operations NewPage, The Port Hawkesbury mill makes great improved newsprint, supercalendered paper for printing publishing industries. We have very dedicated talented workforce downtime in no way reflection them.
NewPage's product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint, and specialty papers. These papers are used for corporate collateral, commercial printing, magazines, catalogs, books, coupons, inserts, newspapers, packaging applications, and direct mail advertising. The company owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nova Scotia. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 4.1 million tons of paper, including 2.9 million tons of coated paper, 1.0 million tons of uncoated paper, and 200,000 tons of specialty paper.
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