In late October, the Port Alice specialty pulp mill in Vancouver, B.C. ceased operations, and now hangs between life and death as various investors and management groups work to get it restarted. But it's not likely the three major conditions that shut it down in the first place-absurd oil prices, high wood costs, and the shrunken U.S dollar (in which the mill trades) versus the Canadian dollar-will change dramatically in the near future.

The longer a closed mill sits, the less likely it will run again. People all over North America know that up close and personal. A couple of weeks are about it, depending on how well and caring the shutdown was conducted.

But one good thing about all the mill closures and paper machine shutdowns in the North American pulp and paper industry these past three or four years, they seem to have slowed to a drizzle at the end of 2004-or just a drop now and then. Whatever the rain storm analogy, it's certainly better than the downpour of 2001 - 2003.

Black 2003
Just looking at the latter half of this year, in addition to Port Alice and its loss of 320 jobs and 160,000 mtpy of pulp off the market, there have been only a couple of other closure announcements of note.

In September, UPM announced plans to shutdown its aging kraft mill at Miramichi, N.B., and restructure its paper mill there, resulting in a loss of 400 jobs. In July, Rock-Tenn closed its Ostego, Mich., paperboard mill, eliminating 200-300 jobs.

By comparison, 2003 was a total disaster for the industry. In just the latter six months of last year-July through December-there were job loss announcements totaling some 8,150 employees, most of them professionals. This has to be, by far, the bloodiest half year in the North American paper industry's history, as, in addition to massive job losses, some 2 million tons of annual pulp and paper production capacity evaporated permanently during those 184 days.

The first half of 2003 was almost as bad. But the destruction of July-December hopefully sets a record that will never be broken.

Bloody Details
For those interested in gory details, the following paragraphs outline closure/job cut activities in the North American paper industry during the second half of 2003.

In December, MeadWestvaco announced it would be eliminating 1,000 full time jobs or 3.3% of its workforce. That same month, Abitibi-Consolidated said it was indefinitely idling its Lufkin, Texas newsprint and groundwood specialties mill and its Port-Alfred, Que., mill (newsprint and others), totaling 1,220 job losses-this in addition to the closure several months earlier of the company's Sheldon, Texas mill. Altogether, Abitibi idled some 1.2 million tons of production in these moves. Also in December, Caraustar shutdown its Austell, Ga., operations and eliminated 50 more jobs.

In November, Weyerhaeuser shutdown No. 1 fine paper machine at Longview, Wash., killing 119 jobs and 90,000 tpy of fine paper capacity, after having shutdown No 1 PM there in 2001. Also in November, Sappi's No. 14 PM at Westbrook, Maine, went down permanently, along with 170 related jobs. And at its Camas, Wash., mill, Georgia-Pacific announced the retirement of No. 5 uncoated freesheet machine, reducing the staff there by 60 employees. Sonoco additionally shutdown a paper mill and plant in Atlanta in November, eliminating a total of 83 jobs.

In October, Smurfit-Stone Container announced the elimination of 1,400 jobs, involving the closure of a corrugating medium mill in Thunder Bay, Ont., along with the permanent idling of two containerboard machines at Jacksonville, Fla., and a couple of recycled boxboard machines in Philadelphia.

September was the worst month of 2003, as IP announced it would be cutting 3,000 jobs throughout the company, some 450 being in Memphis. Glatfelter also scaled-back its specialty paper mill at Neenah, Wisc., that month, along with 200 jobs, and Packaging Dynamics closed its specialty paper mill in Detroit, along with 148 more jobs.

In August, Stora Enso announced a 12% reduction in its North American workforce, impacting 700 employees. As part of this, specialty paper machine No. 2 at Stevens Point, Wisc., and LWC machine No. 24 at Biron, Wisc., were permanently idled. Sonoco closed a flexible packaging plant in New York (loss of 130 jobs), along with other company wide cuts of 340 jobs.

In July, Weyerhaeuser shutdown its Dryden, Ont., sawmill (eliminating 110 jobs) and restructured its pulp and paper mill there, resulting in the loss of an additional 220 jobs. Curtis Fine Papers announced that month that it was closing its Adams, Mass., mill and eliminating 102 jobs, while the Newark Group said it would close its Newark, N.J., paperboard mill, impacting more than 100 jobs.

Silver Linings
Continuing with the rain analogy, devastating storms of the past few years appear to have finally passed in the North American paper industry. Some recent price increases look promising, even in the market pulp and newsprint sectors, and 2005 could mark the first year of a genuine recovery in this part of the world.

There's not a lot that can be done about conditions that closed Port Alice recently. Petroleum prices seem to be beyond anybody's control and, considering the high costs of transportation and labor, fiber prices will either plateau or continue to climb in the near future.

However, the industry here has made some significant gains in the energy arena, and will likely continue its move towards energy independence as discussed in the forest biorefinery articles in PaperAge's September and October 2004 issues. Also, working with the industry's suppliers, some mills have significantly increased chemical pulp yield by improving efficiency of the digester, employing such technologies as maximum kappa cooking.

PaperAge will be reporting on some of these recent breakthroughs in 2005, beginning with the January/February issue, which looks specifically at maximum kappa cooking as well as advances in bio-oil technologies in North America using forest residues as well as bark streams in existing pulp mills.