Paper Excellence to idle Canadian Domtar mill

Fort Mill, South Carolina-based Domtar Corp. will indefinitely idle the pulp and paper operations at its Espanola, Ontario, facility for an expected period greater than one year.

Domtar has been part of Canada-based Paper Excellence Group since late 2021. Earlier this year, the two companies closed on their acquisition of Resolute Forest Products.

The decision regarding the Espanola site will result in a curtailment of annual northern bleached softwood kraft pulp production of about 280,000 air-dried metric tons and about 69,000 tons of specialty paper.

“The Espanola mill has been challenged for some time now,” says Steve Henry, Domtar paper and packaging president. “We have worked diligently to find a viable path forward for the operation including offering it for sale. Employees affected by this change have earned our appreciation and we thank them for their contributions.”

The idling of the mill was preceded by “years of ongoing operating losses and high costs associated with maintaining and operating the facility," Domtar says.

The company says the pulp mill will shut down in early October and the paper machines will shut down by early November.

Domtar’s most recent big ticket capital expenditure has involved building and ramping up its recycled-content paperboard mill in Kingsport, Tennessee.