<b>G-P Set To Dismantle Kalamazoo Mill</B>

Despite a possible buyer for Georgia-Pacific’s idled Kalamazoo, Mich., mill, the company is looking to permanently idle the mill and ship equipment to other G-P mills.

The decision marks the end of yet another Kalamazoo area paper mill. The G-P decision is the latest blow for the Kalamazoo area and for market pulp producers who served it. The area has seen the closing or planned closing of five paper mills since last fall.

Mead Corp. shut down its spiral notebook facility in Kalamazoo in September. Plainwell Inc. in Plainwell and Crown Vantage Inc. in Parchment have also closed operations there. In addition, Fox River Paper Co. said last month that it planned to permanently close its nearby Vicksburg, Mich., paper mill by April 2001.

G-P’s Kalamazoo mill is made up of two paper machines and a deinking pulp operation.

According to Greg Guest, a spokesman for G-P, the company has fielded offers from several potential buyers. However, neither was a credible offer.

Meanwhile, because the mill is an older, less efficient mill, and has been losing money the company is planning to ship the equipment at the mill to other G-P mills “in the near future,” Guest says.