Great Northern reschedules shutdown to October

MILLINOCKET – Great Northern Paper Inc.’s 42-day paper machine shutdown, planned for later this month at the Millinocket paper mill, has been rescheduled to Oct. 15.

Employees, who earlier were asked to avoid taking vacation time during the shutdown so they could be retrained to operate the newly rebuilt paper machine, now can take vacations in August. Workers’ retraining will take place later.

The shutdown now scheduled for this fall will allow the company to complete the $100 million modernization of the Millinocket mill’s largest paper machine.

“As a result of delays for engineering, material and equipment delivery schedules and the complexity of this project, a decision was made to reschedule the shutdown start date to Oct. 15,” GNP President Eldon Doody stated in a notice to employees on Tuesday.

Although the shutdown has been delayed, company officials said work on the modernization project will continue.

Officials said the company will take advantage of the additional time to complete more of the preparation work for the project, which potentially will shorten the shutdown period later.

“The delay of the No. 11 paper machine shutdown will allow us to maximize the prep work, thus minimizing the shutdown period and ensuring a successful start-up,” said Doody.

“This new schedule allows us the opportunity to complete significant amounts of work prior to the shutdown, maximizing efficiency and productivity while minimizing cost impacts and without affecting the current production of paper machine No. 11,” Doody stated.

Brian Stetson, GNP’s spokesman, said taking additional time would result in a very successful start-up of the modernized paper machine. “This is too important a project to rush into a shutdown,” he said.

The modernization project is the cornerstone to the company’s business plan for the future, which includes switching from low-profit commodity grades of paper to higher-value specialty grades.

“We realized that we need some additional time to allow the engineering work to be completed and for all of the materials to be on site before the shutdown,” said Stetson.

He said not all of the auxiliary equipment – such as 800,000 feet of control and power cables, steel piping, pumps and motors – would have been delivered before the initial shutdown date of July 30. He said there was a lengthy list of things the company could do in the meantime, such as installing cable, pumps and motors once they arrive on site.

“It will improve our chances for a good, smooth shutdown and a great start-up,” said Stetson.

The primary contractor for the paper machine modernization project is the Cianbro Corp. The GNP spokesman said rescheduling the shutdown, which involves outside construction crews, was no simple matter, especially during the summer at the height of the construction season in Maine.

Stetson said October was the next earliest time slot available for manpower availability because of the other Maine mill shutdowns scheduled this summer.