Paper Excellence announces sale of Domtar Kamloops pulp mill

The Paper Excellence Group, a manufacturer of pulp and specialty, printing, writing and packaging papers that is based in Richmond, British Columbia, has announced its subsidiary, Fort Hill, South Carolina-based Domtar Inc., has entered into an agreement with an affiliate of Kruger Specialty Papers Holding LP to sell its Kamloops pulp mill.

Domtar and Paper Excellence did not disclose the amount of the agreement, but the transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of this year.

Domtar's Kamloop's mill, located in Kamloops, British Columbia, uses softwood fiber from third-party sawmills in the region to produce high-quality northern bleached softwood kraft pulp and unbleached softwood kraft for customers in North America, China and Southeast Asia, according to the company. The mill has one fiber line and an annual pulp production capacity of 408,000 metric tons.

Built in 1965, Domtar says the Kamloops mill produces pulp for a diverse range of products, including personal hygiene, building siding, dishware and more.

When Paper Excellence acquired Domtar in November 2021 and entered into a consent agreement with Canada's commissioner of competition, it agreed to sell the Kamloops mill to resolve the commissioner's concerns about the merger's implications on the purchase of wood fiber from the Thompson-Okanagan region in British Columbia.

Domtar currently is in the process of converting a printing and writing mill in Kingsport, Tennessee, into a containerboard mill, which will produce 600,000 tons per year of recycled-content linerboard and medium while consuming approximately 700,000 tons of recovered fiber per year. The project is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.