Newstech Inc., an affiliate of private investment company, Belkorp Industries, Inc., will reopen the former Deferiet Paper Co. mill in upstate New York by the end of this month. The mill will operate as a single machine mill producing about 200 tons per day of directory grade paper from 100 percent recycled material. Recycled pulp will be shipped to the mill from plants in Maryland and Pennsylvania that are owned by Belkorp.
The company plans to install a second paper machine but has no definite timeline for when it would actually take place. NLK (Vancouver, Canada) provided engineering service to the project, while a team of former employees managed construction and startup activities.
One year ago, Deferiet Paper Company ceased operations of its groundwood pulp and coated paper mill. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and was forced to layoff more than 300 employees. Attempts to sell the entire mill failed and the mill’s assets, with the exception of the No. 6 paper machine, were liquidated at auction, piece by piece.
Fast forward a year later, and the mill has new ownership, some $50 million of capital including the purchase price of the mills remaining assets, and is set to begin producing paper again.
Belkorp owns a recycled fiber plant in Hagerstown, Maryland that was purchased from First Urban Fiber for $8 million at a bankruptcy sale last year. Built in 1996, with a $200 million price tag, the Hagerstown plant has the ability to produce 500 tons per day of deinked pulp.