Weak demand and low prices for newsprint will force NorskeCanada to increase market-related curtailment of production at its British Columbia operations in the first quarter.
The company said poor market conditions that resulted in curtailment of nearly 66,000 metric tons of paper in the previous quarter are continuing to prevail in the first quarter of this year, typically a low demand quarter.
Jim Armitage, NorskeCanada's senior vice president, sales and marketing, said markets for newsprint continue to be adversely affected by uncertain economic conditions which have impacted the company's publisher and commercial printing customers.
"While hopeful that a recovery will ignite at some point, the early months of 2002 have not been encouraging," Armitage said. "Until that recovery is underway, we will continue to match production with orders with a view of keeping our inventories at a manageable level."
The company had previously announced that it would shut one paper machine at each of its Port Alberni and Elk Falls divisions for the entire first quarter.
The announcement will result in additional mill-wide curtailment of 8 to 10 days in March at Elk Falls, and at the Powell River division. The total curtailment for the quarter is estimated at 112,000 metric tons.
Armitage said the main problem was in newsprint demand and that demand for the specialty grades, which comprise about 50 percent of NorskeCanada's output, is soft but holding up better than newsprint.