Domtar Corporation announced that it will permanently reduce its fine paper manufacturing at its Plymouth, North Carolina mill, by shutting down one of the two paper machines comprising the mill’s fine paper production unit. This will result in the curtailment, at the end of February 2009, of 293,000 short tons of the mill’s uncoated freesheet production capacity. Domtar plans to reduce staff across various parts of the mill by approximately 185 employees.
“Continued adverse economic conditions and the decline of fine paper orders require that we reduce our uncoated freesheet manufacturing capacity,” said John D. Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer of Domtar.
The Plymouth mill will continue to operate two pulp lines, one pulp dryer and one paper machine.
Domtar is the largest integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity, and is also a manufacturer of papergrade, fluff and specialty pulp.