UPM-Madison’s paper mill is cutting down production and laying off hourly workers for two weeks, attributing the move to energy costs, international competition and market conditions.
The Bangor Daily News reported that Madison Paper Industries President Russ Dreschel wrote to Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday that the shutdown would occur from Jan. 24 to sometime during the week of Feb. 9.
“We regret having to take this downtime, but conditions in the U.S. market for supercalendered paper, combined with the increased energy costs we incur during the cold winter months, require us to reduce production,” Drechsel wrote in the letter.
Dreschel did not say how many of the mill’s 220 employees would be affected. He also did not disclose the mill’s number of hourly workers.
“We’re still going through the planning process to say what positions we want to staff and what work we want to complete during the production curtailment,” he told the newspaper.
In his letter to Maine’s delegation, Dreschel complained that a competing mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, had received more than $125 million in subsidies from the Canadian government. He said the subsidies exacerbated the Madison mill’s efforts in offering competitive prices in the face of rising energy costs.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King said they will “continue to press the [Obama] administration to investigate this subsidy and pursue remedies,“ adding that they will “continue to fight unfair trade practices that threaten Maine jobs.”
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