Verso Paper to Close Three Paper Machines

Verso Paper Corp. has announced plans to close three paper machines, reducing its annual production capacity by around 193,000 tons. Verso will be closing its No. 2 coated groundwood paper machine at its Bucksport, Maine, mill, Oct. 23, and two supercalendered paper machines at its mill in Sartell, Minn., Dec. 14.

The company, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., is a producer of coated groundwood, coated freesheet, supercalendered and specialty paper products.

The company says the shutdown of the machine at Bucksport will reduce Verso’s annual coated groundwood capacity by 90,000 tons, about 10 percent of its total capacity. After the shutdown, Verso will have annual coated groundwood capacity of 925,000 tons. The company will remain the second largest producer of coated groundwood paper in North America.

The company also announced plans to shut down its No. 1 and No. 2 paper machines at its Sartell mill. The closures will eliminate about 103,000 tons per year of paper capacity.

In Verso announcement discussing the closure, Mike Jackson, the company’s president and CEO, says, “While improved from the recent lows of 2009, demand for coated groundwood papers continues to face headwinds. The cost structure of the No. 2 paper machine at Bucksport, continuously rising input costs and these headwinds resulted in this decision to permanently reduce our coated groundwood capacity.”