EASTPORT – Three years ago, dignitaries including the state’s governor dedicated the city’s new $23 million cargo pier.

Today, area residents are wondering about the cargo pier’s future since its largest shipper has been sold to a Canadian firm.

Last week, Georgia-Pacific Corp. announced it had signed a letter of agreement to sell the Woodland pulp and paper mill in Baileyville to Montreal-based Domtar Inc. Three out-of-state mills will be included in the more than $1.5 billion sale. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Under terms of the sale announced last week, Domtar also will acquire G-P’s mills in Ashdown, Ark., and the Nekoosa and Port Edwards mills in Wisconsin. The sale affects nearly 3,200 G-P employees, including more than 500 who work at the Woodland facility.

With annual sales of nearly $4 million (Canadian), Domtar is Canada’s largest producer of specialty and fine papers and the seventh largest in North America. It sells mostly to the U.S. market and employs 9,000 people across North America.

Much of the attention last week was focused on the future of the Woodland mill, but the impact the sale will have on the three-year-old Eastport port also is an important issue.

Georgia-Pacific has been the port’s largest shipper. Last year it exported about 165,000 tons of pulp and rolled paper to foreign markets.

With a depth of more than 60 feet of water at low tide, Eastport is one of the deepest seaports in the United States, and the 634-foot-long Estes Head pier is closer to Europe than any other point in the country. Most of the cargo shipped from Eastport is pulp used in the papermaking process. Shipments also include some rolled paper.

The new pier, which was completed in 1998, was built to accommodate 900-foot long ships on the outer berth and up to 550-foot ships on the inside berth. Most of the funding for the Estes Head facility came from a $13 million transportation bond issue voters approved in 1995. Another $1.4 million for the project came from a 1997 bond issue.

When asked how they believed the sale would affect the port, all that officials at the G-P mill would say was that it was business as usual at the pulp and paper plant. But at the time the sale was announced, Ralph Feck, vice president of G-P’s Maine operations, acknowledged that although the Canadian firm would buy the pulp side of the business, Domtar was not a major producer of pulp.

City Manager George “Bud” Finch, who also is a member of the Eastport Port Authority, said company officials had not yet visited the city. “We hope there is a positive impact,” he said of the sale. “We anxiously await to hear what their plans are for the future of the mill.”

Officials at Federal Marine Terminals Inc. in Eastport, who oversee operations at the port, did not return a telephone call.

Domtar officials said it would be premature for them to discuss the facility’s future.

“I can’t comment on that [use of the Eastport port] because we don’t own that business yet,” said Domtar’s William George, vice president of communications and government relations.

But George did confirm that the company had not developed large markets outside of Canada and the United States. “There are two products that we have exported outside of North America, lumber and pulp. My understanding is that the product that is being shipped out of the port from the Woodland facility is essentially pulp,” he said.

Since the sale has not been completed, George said it would be premature to speculate what the company may do in the future. “But depending upon market conditions, we have sold pulp all over the world. That’s what really drives the pulp business – market conditions, the value of our dollar and the value of your dollar and the value of the Euro,” he said.

The Canadian firm has been a major player in the North American paper market.

“We’ve really concentrated on developing the North American market. Because it’s on the paper side, you really need a good distribution network, and that’s what we have in North America,” he said.

If the company continues to export products abroad, George was asked if Domtar would use the Eastport facility or look at the competing port in Bayside, New Brunswick. That port is located near St. Stephen and at least 20 miles closer to the Woodland mill. He also was asked if the company might consider shipping its product out of the large port at Saint John, about an hour north of St. Stephen.

“I really can’t comment on that one. … This is so speculative, but we will look at what makes sense and the kind of service. I am sure that the people at G-P had a good reason to use the facility they were using, and I am sure it made good business sense,” he said.

State officials also said it would be premature to comment on the impact the sale could have on the port. Brian Nutter, ports and marine program manager for the Maine Department of Transportation, said officials in Augusta are watching the situation.

“We haven’t had a chance to meet with Domtar officials yet. We plan to do that in the early near future and get a feel for their plans and objectives. We certainly want to work with them to help them facilitate whatever product movement they have, and of course we are very hopeful that will continue to be exports through the port of Eastport. Other than that, we really don’t know much more. We are trying to figure it out like every body else,” he said.