<b>IP Closing Mills</B>

International Paper announced plans to reduced its production capacity by 1.2 million tons a year in uncoated paper, pulp, unbleached kraft paper and containerboard. The company announced it would accomplish this by closing three mills and scaling back the operations of a fourth.

The shutdowns will result in reductions of approximately 820,000 tons of IP's U.S. uncoated papers, 120,000 tons of its North American market pulp, 230,000 tons of its U.S. containerboard, and 50,000 tons of unbleached Kraft paper capacity.

The affected facilities include mills in Mobile and Courtland, Ala.; Lock Haven, Pa.; and Camden, Ark.

According to the company the Mobile mill will be shut down completely shut down indefinitely. The fiber line in Courtland, as well as relatedpaper machines and a pulp dryer, will be idled. However, four other machines will continue to operate at the mill.

In Lock Haven, all five machines will be closed. Two smaller machines that produce specialty paper products will continue to operate until the finished products are transferred to another IP facility.

The Camden mill is being closed due to the decline of the Kraft paper market, excess capacity within International Paper's Kraft & Containerboard system and shrinking customer demand. Three machines will be shutdown. Moving the unbleached Kraft paper production from Camden to mills at Savannah, Ga., and Roanoke Rapids, N.C. removes 230,000 tons of its U.S. containerboard capacity and 50,000 tons of unbleached Kraft paper.

At the conclusion of the rationalization program, International Paper will have approximately 3.9 million tons in U.S. uncoated papers production capacity, 1.3 million tons in North American market pulp capacity, and 4.7 million tons of U.S. containerboard capacity. IP's total global paper, paperboard and pulp capacity, including Carter Holt Harvey, will be approximately 21.4 million tons per year.

The shutdowns will start this fourth quarter.