Great Northern Paper announced plans to idle a second machine at its Millinocket, Maine mill for one week. The downtime begins today. The reason for the downtime is difficult market conditions for the material.
The problem with markets resulted in the company shutting down its No. 8 paper machine for one week. The No. 7 paper machine was shut down temporarily last week and is expected to be closed for an additional week.
Startup for both machines is expected by June 3 if orders improve.
Citing weak paper markets, Great Northern Paper Inc. earlier shut down all production at its East Millinocket and Millinocket paper mills for two weeks. Production at both paper mills resumed May 13.
Along with the earlier two-week production curtailment of its two paper mills, the company also indefinitely shut down the off- machine blade coater at the Millinocket mill. The off-machine blade coater places a glossy coat on papers. Officials said the move reflected forecasts for weak markets in coated papers for the rest of the year.
Company officials don't expect markets to turn around enough this year to resume use of the off-machine blade coater, but if markets improve it could be put back into operation.
The East Millinocket paper mill produces telephone directory papers and the Millinocket mill produces papers used for advertising. Bangor Daily News