For much of this decade, the U.S. state of Maine's paper industry’s most notable product has been bad news: entire mills closing, others idled for weeks or months, bankruptcies, machines shutting down and workers laid off.

Now, after two decades of cascading drops in papermaking jobs, the basement seems to have been reached. And that, ironically, gives hope to those watching the future of the industry.

"I believe we have a great story," Rosaire Pelletier, the senior forest products adviser to Gov. Paul LePage, said of the industry. "I see it as stable and growing."

Recent news supports Pelletier’s take on the state of the industry.

Just last week, ND Paper, a subsidiary of industry giant Nine Dragons Paper, headquartered in Hong Kong, bought the Old Town mill, which has been closed for nearly three years. The announcement came on the heels of ND Paper’s announcement that it would invest $111 million to increase efficiency at its Rumford paper mill. Between the two moves, about 150 new jobs are expected to be created, a shot in the arm for the rural areas that are still dependent on the mills and suppliers for jobs.

The Old Town purchase is expected to boost pulp production in the state, although much of that raw material for making paper is expected to go to ND Paper’s own mill. Eventually, however, some of the pulp could be exported, an increasingly lucrative new market for the state’s forest products industry.

 

More information is available by reading the full article from the Press Herald (Portland, Me., USA) published on Oct. 14, 2018.