<B>Inland Empire Pushes Back Start of Expansion</B>

The start of a newsprint machine has been delayed at Inland Empire Paper Co.'s mill in Washington. According to Wayne Andresen, president of Inland Empire, when complete the new equipment will boost production at the mill from around 270 tons of newsprint a day to more than 500 tons per day.

The delay in completing the expansion has been caused by the financial difficulties with its equipment supplier, Beloit, which filed for bankruptcy. This resulted in pushing back the start date for the expansion from this October to the middle of next spring, Andresen says. He feels the machine will be ready to come on line between April-May.

The cost of the expansion project is around $103 million. With part of the machine and equipment already installed, the company has had to purchase the remaining equipment from Voith.

Along with an overall increase in newsprint production, the mill will increase its consumption of old newspaper. The mill produces newsprint with a 40 percent recycled content level.