PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill will close Dec. 19 for at least 10 days, the manager said, and if sales don’t improve another closure could happen in the next quarter of 2009.
Manager Roger Loney said the shutdown, which will affect about 275 employees, is because of tough economic times.
“We’re seeing it [the market] decrease in both pulp and container board,” Loney said.
“We started to see the economy turn at the end of October, and we’ve been talking about a closure for a few weeks now.”
Loney said that the plan is to get the mill — Jefferson County’s largest private employer — back in operation on Dec. 29, but that time line could change depending on sales during Christmas week.
“We don’t have a clear vision of where the world economy is going, but project our first quarter of 2009 will be slow,” Loney said.
“We’ll have to see how the orders come in, but if we need to, [a closure] could happen again in the first three months of the new year.”
During the hiatus, the mill will shut down completely, Looney said, with about 25 workers remaining on site for security and to process shipments.
The 275 employees who will not punch a time card during the shutdown will not be paid unless they use company vacation time, Loney said, except for Christmas and Dec. 26, which are paid holidays.
The mill produces pulp for Asian markets, where it is used in the packaging of exported goods, and container board for cardboard boxes in North America.
Loney said demand for both products has reached a low point.
“The recent worldwide economic downturn is negatively affecting the demand for our products,” Loney said.
“The downturn we are seeing is unprecedented, and we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to be cost-competitive.”
Week off in October
The mill took a week’s hiatus from producing paper products in October.
That shutdown was primarily for maintenance, and none of the 300 employees were out of work during the shutdown.
The mill, which usually operates 24 hours daily and seven days each week, generally shuts down only once a year for maintenance.
Spokesman Chuck Madison said the company spent nearly $3 million on maintenance, improvements and upkeep during the October shutdown.
Among the improvements were changes designed to reduce oil consumption.
The mill, which emerged from bankruptcy in August 2007 under new management, has taken several steps to increase efficiency and decrease costs of operation.
“We have made tremendous progress in the past year to reduce costs and improve the reliability and productivity of our operation,” Loney said.
“We have reduced our oil consumption by approximately 40 percent, and have completely reorganized our safety and maintenance systems.
“We are making steady improvement to our environmental performance and have significantly increased the recycle content of our products.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
