Decisions by Corporate Domtar will include changes at its Ashdown, Arkansas mill in Little River County.
The company announced the changes on its main website:
As part of the cost-savings program, the Company will permanently close the uncoated free-sheet manufacturing at the Kingsport, Tennessee, and Port Huron, Michigan, mills; the remaining paper machine at the Ashdown, Arkansas, mill; and the converting center in Ridgefields, Tennessee. These actions will reduce the Company’s annual uncoated free-sheet paper capacity by approximately 721,000 short tons and will result in a workforce reduction of approximately 780 employees. The Kingsport and Ashdown paper machines, which have been idled since April 2020, will not recommence operations. Port Huron and Ridgefields mills are expected to shut down by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
The Company will complete the conversion of the Ashdown mill to 100 percent softwood and fluff pulp, which will require $15 to $20 million of capital investments and will take 12 to 14 months to implement. The mill will produce additional market hardwood pulp until it converts the fiberline to softwood pulp. The conversion of the fiberline to 100 percent softwood is also necessary for an eventual expansion into containerboard. Following the fiberline conversion, Ashdown will be a world-class market pulp mill with annual capacity of 775,000 tons of fluff and softwood pulp.