GNP machines to resume; 75 back to work

MILLINOCKET – A three-week production curtailment of half of the paper machines at Great Northern Paper Inc.’s Millinocket mill is about to end.

About 75 Millinocket paper mill employees will be heading back to work Monday, company officials confirmed Friday. The mill employs 712 people.

Company officials said the temporary curtailment of part of the production at the Millinocket mill was necessitated by difficult market conditions and a shortage of orders for specialty and coated paper grades. Coated and uncoated groundwood specialty grades of paper are those typically used in advertising fliers and catalogues.

Initially, Great Northern planned only a two-week production curtailment, but weak paper markets caused the company to extend it for another week.

In an announcement to employees, GNP President Eldon Doody said paper machines No. 7 and 8 and the off-machine coater complex, which places a glossy coat on the paper, will start up April 8.

“We will monitor orders daily to determine the machine schedules beyond April 15,” Doody stated.

Responding to whether there may be additional production curtailments, Brian Stetson, GNP’s spokesman and director of environmental affairs, said the company hopes future orders will prevent the need for any future production curtailments.

Stetson said the economic recovery has yet to be reflected in the paper markets.

“In any upswing in the business cycle, paper orders do typically lag,” he said. “It is not unusual that the paper market continues to be soft in the near term, but we are anticipating an improvement as the year progresses.”

The production curtailment marks the second in the last six months for Great Northern. Other Maine paper mills also have experienced a series of shutdowns during the past year.