<B>North American Newsprint Production Up Through September</b>

The production of newsprint in North America jumped 2.7 percent in September, according to the Pulp and Paper Council. For the month production stands at 1.291 million metric tons. The operating rate at North American newsprint mills stands at 98 percent of capacity for the month, compared to last September’s figure of 93 percent of capacity.

The figures for the month pushed the nine-month production total to 11.927 million metric tons, a 1.8 percent improvement from 1999’s figures. The average operating rate over the first nine months stands at 98 percent of capacity, compared to last year’s nine-month average of 94 percent of capacity.

While total production improved, Canadian mills realized the sharpest increase between the two years, with production for September up 6.4 percent to 758,000 metric tons. For the first nine months Canadian newsprint production stands at 6.910 million metric tons, a 0.2 percent improvement.

The shipment of newsprint from North American newsprint mills dipped 0.7 percent for September to 1.323 million metric tons. Despite the drop for the month shipment over the first nine months increased by 3.1 percent to 11.975 metric million tons.

For September, shipments to the United States were the only bright spot, with the figures for the month increasing 1.6 percent from the same time last year. For the first nine months shipments moved up 3.5 percent to 8.766 million metric tons.

Shipments to Canada, however, declined by 5.5 percent for the month, although they were up a sharp 5 percent for the first nine months.

Shipments of finished newsprint overseas dropped the greatest amount for the month. For September shipments declined by 7.3 percent to 245,000 metric tons. However, for the first nine months total newsprint shipments offshore increased 0.9 percent to 2.277 million metric tons.