The Industry Braces for Hurricane Irma

Two Texas pulp and paper mills owned by International Paper (IP) and WestRock remained idle into this week after Tropical Storm Harvey flooded the region in late August. Meanwhile, pulp and paper mills across Florida and Georgia were bracing for potential catastrophic impacts from Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm that was nearing landfall on Sept. 10.

IP said on Sept 6 that its Orange, TX, nearly 800,000 tons/yr two-machine kraft linerboard mill on the Louisiana border remained idle since Aug. 28 due to continued flood waters from Harvey. The mill machines run on 80% virgin furnish and 20% recovered paper, according to RISI Mill Intelligence figures. A spokesman said the mill had no structural damage and was optimistic the mill could be safely restarted "in the near future."

WestRock on Sept. 7 informed the SEC its bleached paperboard mill in Evadale, TX, about 40 miles from Orange, was idled Aug. 30 due to a lack of electricity. The Evadale mill has capacity of 673,695 tons/yr or 1,900 tons/day of solid bleached sulfate (SBS) paperboard grades including folding carton, cupstock, and liquid packaging grades. 

With the trajectory of Hurricane Irma still unclear on Sept. 8, the state of Florida braced for extreme winds and torrential rain "from coast to coast," the governor warned residents.

At least 13 pulp and paper mills are along the potential path of the storm on the Atlantic Coast and nearby inland areas from Florida to South Carolina, and 15 along the Gulf Coast and inland areas from Florida to Georgia and Alabama.

Georgia-Pacific (GP) has at least six mills in the threatened area, and IP at least four.

"GP has a number of operations currently shown in the expected path," a spokesman told PPI Pulp & Paper Week. "Our priority has been our employees and their families, and to make sure they have the ability to prepare for the storm. At some facilities, especially in places where evacuations are occurring, we are in the process of shutting operations down or idling significant portions in a safe and orderly manner, and in enough time that employees and their family members can safely evacuate as needed or prepare their homes."

The GP official said a few of the company's larger sites where storm preparation was occurring included the Palatka, FL, and Savannah River (Rincon, GA) tissue mills, and the Foley, FL, and Brunswick, GA, market pulp mills.

Closures were also reported for the Resolute Forest Products tissue mill at Hialeah, FL, near Miami, that shut Sept. 8.