Enron Agrees to Sell N.J. Newsprint Mill

Enron Corp. reached an agreement to sell its bankrupt and idle northern New Jersey newsprint mill to Vancouver, B.C.-based Belkorp Industries.

An Enron spokesman in Houston said yesterday a sale agreement was expected to be approved this week by a bankruptcy court in New York City and a sale would close next week.

He would not elaborate on the bidder, plans for the mill, or the purchase price, but press reports in New Jersey today and unofficial industry sources indentified the buyer as Belkorp. The B.C.-based recycling company has recently acquired four mills in the Northeast U.S. out of bankruptcy, in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and now near New York City.

The purchase price was reported to be $6.1 million. Belkorp did not return a phone inquiry placed yesterday.

The Garden State Paper mill in Garfield, N.J., was shut Dec. 7 affecting 270 workers. The two-machine mill has capacity for 234,000 tons/year of 100% recycled newsprint.

Unofficial sources said the new owner plans to restart one machine at the mill and produce paper other than newsprint. Sources indicated the N.J. mill will not restart its stock prep system and buy deinked pulp furnish from Belkorp's newly rescued Northampton, Pa., mill.

Three of the mill's recovered paper collection centers are being auctioned separately, the Enron spokesman said. Seen as critical to the state's recycling programs, the centers have been in operation since the mill closed. They handled up to 800 tons/day of old newspapers.

Enron acquired the mill for $72 million from newspaper publisher Media General in August 2000 and made it part of its newsprint hedging program.