ORONO – International experts on the pulp and paper industry will speak about the state of the industry at a University of Maine conference. Speakers include private industry analysts, paper company executives, state and federal government officials and UMaine faculty members.

“The Current State of Maine’s Pulp and Paper Industry: Challenges, Strengths and Opportunities” will be held 11:45 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Friday, April 4, in the College Center at University College in Bangor. It is sponsored by the University of Maine College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture and the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy. The conference is free and open to the public.

“This is a timely topic, one where the university can lend its expertise and work with its collaborators to provide solid information, current information, useful information to policy-makers and others on the state’s largest single business,” says Bob Rice, professor of wood science and the conference organizer.

The pulp and paper industry is the eighth-largest business sector in the country. In Maine, the industry represents one-third of the state’s manufacturing economy with sales of more than $4 billion annually.

The conference will focus on the current state of the industry.

Don Roberts, an industry analyst from Toronto, will speak about global performance in the industry. Irene Durbak, an analyst with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory, will talk about the recent trend of importing paper from Europe.

James McNutt, executive director of the Center for Paper and Business Industry Studies in Atlanta, who studied the Maine pulp and paper industry for the state Legislature in 1995, will talk about Maine’s competitive position in the industry. Health care costs and other human resource issues will be discussed by Dick Marston, the human resource manager for Nexfor Fraser Papers, which operates mills in the United States and Canada.

Why companies may or may not choose to locate in Maine will be the topic of Lee Bingham, an executive with SCA, North America, a Scandanavian tissue maker. He is a former Great Northern executive.

The state’s economist, Laurie LaChance, will talk about labor issues affecting the pulp and paper industry in Maine. State Rep. Richard Rosen of Bucksport will talk about the impact of mill closures on a community. He owns a business in Bucksport, home to an International Paper Co. mill.

David Field, the Edwin L. Giddings professor of forest policy at UM, will talk about the ripple effect of mill closures and entrenchment. John Williams, executive director of the Maine Pulp and Paper Association will discuss Maine’s business climate.

Lloyd Irland, a forest industry consultant, will talk about the availability of fiber resources to sustain and support industry growth in Maine.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Great Northern employee, has been invited to give opening remarks.