According to a report yesterday by The Day, New London, Conn., USA, WestRock, (Richmond, Va.) corrugated packing plant in Uncasville will close permanently at the end of January, according to a company spokesperson. Officials from the company informed the 85 local employees that the mill would be closing permanently Tuesday afternoon, WestRock spokesperson Tucker McNeil said.

 

"It’s about matching our supply and our system to our customers’ demands," McNeil said. "We’ve got a big mill system, and we have to be able to match the entire supply."

 

The Montville mill, which produces about 166,000 tpy of corrugated paperboard packaging was temporarily shut down in October.

 

It was one of four plants that WestRock, formerly known as RockTenn, was "indefinitely idling" following its purchase of SP Fiber Holdings, Inc. in October, according to industry publication RISI/PPI Pulp & Paper Week. The plant reopened a month later, Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel said. In addition to the Uncasville location, the company has permanently shut down two other plants in the past two months, McNeil said. The company owns more than 30 plants in the U.S., Brazil, and India.

 

McDaniel noted that the company has not said what it plans to do with the plant. "They can sell it to another entity to run it as a mill, they could take the equipment to another of their mills..." he said. "They have given me no indication of what their plans are."