Cascades Inc. to shut down Auburn recycled-paper mill by mid-July

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Cascades Inc. has decided to close its de-inked pulp mill located in Auburn, Maine. The mill, acquired by Cascades in 1998, produces de-inked pulp from recycled paper. The release posted on company website states that it has decided to end production at the plant by July 8^th and close the doors of the facility on July 15^th.

Nearly 45 people are feared to be affected by the decision. According to Cascades, the company will do everything to assist the employees affected by the closure. It will consider the possibility of relocating the staff to company’s other existing units. All assistance would be provided to employees to help them find a new employment, so as to minimize the impact of the closure on workers and the community. Meantime, the company expressed sincere thanks to all employees for their loyal support even during extremely tough market conditions. It called for their support in serving customers until its final closure on July 15^th.

Cascades Inc. had made several attempts to save the mill. It had made several optimization efforts to streamline the operations at the mill. The company had also searched for a buyer, but had failed to find one. According to Cascades spokesman Hugo D’Amours, all other major players already had more capacities than their actual sales, which resulted in no company showing interest to purchase the mill. The company had also made an unsuccessful attempt to integrate the Auburn mill with its other operations.

The company noted that printing and writing paper market has been on a sharp decline for quite some time now. The market conditions for de-inked pulp have deteriorated rapidly. The latest earnings report published by the company states that the price for its de-inked pulp has dropped by nearly 4% during early-2016. The market situation has become extremely difficult for the company to continue operations. Hence, it was forced to cease operations at the plant, said company release.

Over the past two years, five Maine mills were forced to close down, mainly due to declining market demand for their products. Earlier in May this year, Madison paper had closed its Maine mill, citing rapid decline in demand for supercalendered paper and drastic drop in sales of its products. The paper industry in the state has lost nearly 2,300 jobs since 2011. The workforce has seen a drastic drop of nearly two-thirds when matched with the levels in 1960’s. The state is now left with only six operating mills.

Meantime, Cascades Inc. had announced last week that it will build a new tissue converting plant on the industrial property adjacent to the Scappoose Industrial Airpark at Scappoose, Oregon, USA. Earlier during this month, the company had announced that Norampac, its containerboard packaging division, has successfully completed acquisition of a Newton, Connecticut plant owned by Rand-Whitney Container LLC. The corrugated packaging plant was purchased in exchange of equipment and customer base of Cascades’ Norampac New England plant located in Thompson, Connecticut.

About Cascades Inc

Founded in 1964, Cascades produces, converts and markets packaging and tissue products that are composed mainly of recycled fibres. The Company employs close to 11,000 employees, who work in over 90 production units located in North America and Europe. From a manufacturer of primarily paper and cartonboard, the Corporation has emerged as the largest collector of recyclable materials in Canada, as well as one of the major converters of corrugated packaging products, tissue papers and specialty products in North America.