NewPage Shutters Wisconsin Mill

KIMBERLY, WI—NewPage Corp. closed its coated freesheet paper mill here at the end of August. The move resulted in the loss of 475 jobs, in addition to the 125 employees impacted by the shutdown of its No. 95 paper machine last May.

The mill produced roughly 500,000 tons of coated freesheet per year for a variety of commercial and specialty printing applications.

According to Mark Suwyn, chairman and CEO of NewPage, the move was in response to a slowdown in demand for coated paper, as the weak economy has taken a bite out of print advertising. Also, the Kimberly mill did not have a pulp mill to support the paper operations.

The Kimberly mill was one of the assets NewPage reaped when it plunked down $2.5 billion for Stora Enso’s North American assets last December.