Caraustar Industries announced that it has permanently closed its Buffalo Paperboard mill located in Lockport, NY.
The company also announced the closure of six tube and core converting facilities. The decision follows the company’s announcement, when it acquired Smurfit-Stone’s industrial packaging operation last September, of consolidating its operations.
Acquired in 1992, the Buffalo mill produced a full line of medium to heavy weight gypsum facing paper products with an annual capacity of 72,000 tons. Operations at this mill have been reduced due to a growing demand by the gypsum wallboard industry for lighter weight facing paper.
Buffalo's customers will be served by other Caraustar facilities, in particular, Premier Boxboard Limited LLC, the company's joint venture with Inland Paperboard, located in Newport, IN, which produces the next generation of lightweight gypsum facing paper.
Five tube and core converting facilities will be permanently closed by the end of this month: Philadelphia Tube Plant, Pennsylvania; Cedartown Tube Plant, located in Georgia; Jacksonville Tube Plant, located in Florida; Eufaula Tube Plant, Alabama; and Saginaw Tube Plant, Michigan.
The sixth facility, Hendersonville Tube Plant, North Carolina, is expected to permanently close by August 30, 2003.
Jim Russell, vice president, Industrial & Consumer Products Group, stated, "We expect to retain all of the business from the closed converting operations by shifting production and manufacturing capabilities to our other 41 tube and core plants. The consolidation of overlapping facilities improves our cost structure and should make us more competitive in the markets we serve."Latest from Recycling Today
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