Domtar says Kingsport conversion near completion

Domtar says the $350 million conversion of its Kingsport, Tennessee, facility to a 100-percent-recycled packaging operation is to be complete and the site fully operational “within weeks.”

The Fort Mill, South Carolina-based communication, specialty and packaging paper manufacturer told the Kingsport Times News it continues to make progress and expects to resume operations this month.

“We recently began processing our first bales of old corrugated containers [OCC] that will be used to make 100-percent-recycled containerboard,” Kingsport mill manager Troy Wilson told the Kingsport Times News. Domtar received its first bales of retail boxes and other mixed paper in April and stored them until the facility could begin operations.

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In June, the company said supply chain issues threatened to delay the project, but it remained on schedule after renting its own ocean freighter to take 43 dryer cans and other equipment from China to the Port of Charleston in South Carolina.

The Kingsport site will have 600,000 tons of production capacity annually of recycled linerboard and corrugated medium and will consume 660,000 tons per year of OCC and mixed paper as raw material.