Shortly after Domtar Corp. announced the closure of its coated groundwood mill in Mississippi, NewPage Corp. then announced an agreement to purchase Domtar’s coated groundwood paper product lines.
The purchase, expected to be completed in April, is to include Domtar’s coated groundwood paper book of business, the Choctaw, Saturn and Jupiter brands, and the coated groundwood product inventory remaining after the Columbus mill closes.
“With Domtar’s decision to permanently close its Columbus mill and exit the coated groundwood product sector, we will be working closely with Domtar to ensure that the immediate needs of their customers are met without any disruption of service,” stated Tom Curley, CEO for NewPage, in a press release. “We recognize that customers have a choice in paper suppliers, and we want to earn their business by ensuring they have a seamless transition to NewPage, should they desire to do so.”
NewPage describes itself as the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with US$3.1 billion in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2009. The company’s mills, including a location in Nova Scotia, have a total annual production capacity of approximately 4.4 million tons of paper, including approximately 3.2 million tons of coated paper, 1.0 million tons of uncoated paper and 200,000 tons of specialty paper.
Domtar, meanwhile, describes itself as the largest integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity.
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