NorskeCanada announced that it will take additional curtailment at all four of its BC pulp and paper divisions during the fourth quarter to reflect the continuing difficult market conditions.
"Weak markets early in the year worsened with the terrorist attacks in September putting a chill on consumer confidence," said Russell Horner, NorskeCanada's president and CEO. "This has resulted in much lower demand for pulp and paper products.
The company said it will curtail paper production by 60,000 metric tons, including 30,000 metric tons, and pulp production by 23,600 metric tons in the fourth quarter.
The latest downtime is in addition to curtailment taken by Norske Skog Canada and Pacifica Papers prior to the formation of NorskeCanada in late August. Fourth quarter curtailment brings accumulated total paper curtailment for 2001 to 166,000 metric tons (including 112,000 metric tons of newsprint) and pulp curtailment to 121,000 metric tons.