ND Paper mill in Maine to take extended downtime

Market conditions have forced ND Paper, the U.S. division of Chinese containerboard producer Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd., to reevaluate operations at two of its locations.

The company’s pulp mill in Old Town, Maine, will be taking extended downtime beginning later this month because of the rising cost of fiber as well as energy costs and market conditions, while its mill in Fairmont, West Virginia, will significantly reduce market pulp production.

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“We will continually evaluate market conditions for a potential restart,” ND Paper spokesperson Jay Capron tells Recycling Today.

ND Paper purchased the Old Town mill in 2018 and resumed operations after the mill was idled in 2015. The site produces 251,000 tons per year, including 178,000 tons of unbleached softwood kraft pulp and 73,000 tons of recycled market pulp, using mostly old corrugated containers (OCC) as primary feedstock.

The Fairmont mill is the youngest of the ND Paper mills. It was founded in 1995 under the name American Fiber Resources before later being acquired by Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products. ND Paper purchased the mill in 2018, and the site has produced 100 percent-recycled pulp since its founding almost 30 years ago. It currently has the capacity to produce 240,000 tons of air-dried recycled pulp.

ND Paper operates four mills that include sites in Old Town; Fairmont; Rumford, Maine; and Biron, Wisconsin.

In March 2022, the company announced plans to convert its B26 machine from producing lightweight, coated publication papers to produce brown packaging grades, and Capron says the project officially was completed last week. The Biron site’s B25 machine produces recycled corrugated medium and linerboard using OCC as feedstock, and with the conversion of its other machine, the mill now solely produces brown packaging grades.

Capron also says ND Paper is preparing to bring online a new 1,400-ton OCC pulping line at the Biron mill, with its official opening scheduled for May 18.

“This is huge news for us and for the future of our organization,” Capron says.

The new line eventually will produce 2,000 tons per day of pulp from converted bales of recycled OCC, and the company says, “These durable and in-demand products are helping drive ND Paper’s expansion into the packaging market.”