NewPage files for bankruptcy

[Skiddah]

Snowstorm,

Care to shed any more light on your inside information?  I have friends who work in Rumford and at the chips mills and the outlook isn't very rosy according to them. Really there's no guarentee that any of NewPage's mills are safe.  Filing for "protection" gives you some lattitude, but you're also under the supervision of the bankruptcy court.  They have quite a say in this.  What if the court said that you have to shutter mills to lower your operating costs?

For those of us in Maine, what if NewPage went the way of Great Northern Paper (Bowater) and the subsequent owners of the mill.  The two mills sat idle for a long time looking for new ownership.  Should that happen we'll be in for a long ride.  We can count on the price of pulp drastically coming down.  Not that the price of pulp has been very sound in the last few years, but we're making enough to get by on it now.  Take a major player out of the field (NewPage) and watch the others (Sappi, Verso) let the bottom drop out of the market and do business with those that can survive at a reduced rate.

We can all come up with a laundry list of companies that filed for "protection" and ended up defunct.  As was mentioned on here before, bankruptcy is often the first step...

[Woodhauler]

THEY ARE NOT PAYING FOR THERE WOOD! They owe me for 2 weeks worth of deliveries! Wood buyer called today and said they would release the payment if i signed a paper they are sending saying i will keep sending them wood! Guess i will sign it and then wait and see what happens with my money! Some truckers was leaving loaded from the chip plant and taking the wood with them!!

[SwampDonkey]

I wouldn't sign nothing unless I was made a creditor on the list for my money. We had mills not pay for several weeks and it always ended in several $100,000 owed and they closed the doors. Don't do it thinking your a good guy, experience tells me you'll be burned bad. Your just keeping that slob's paycheck coming in.

[furltech]

Nobody got paid up here either

[240b]

sounds like Berlin all over again

[grassfed]

Another story...http://www.rumfordfallstimes.com/news/story/05newpage-path37

[KyMasterLogger]

i got a letter in the mail today stating they were filing bankruptcy. they still owe me for 2 loads.

[mill_boy]

I think im getting kicked square in the butt. Ive been cutting pulp by hand since i came out of high school and a little bit before that. im next in line to get on a harvester as well.

[mad murdock]

welcome to the form mill boy.  Mill closures are not a good deal for anyone.  So many mills have closed across N. America in the last decade or 2.  I wasn't here in the PNW when the spotted owl debacle came down, but that was a death blow to hundreds of mills within a matter of a couple years.  Mergers, shutdowns, etc.  I think that if a guy wants to look to a future in the woods, it will require a lot of "outside the box" strategy.  I look at my tree farm and am always thinking of ways that I can make something that I will be able to sell/trade/barter for what I may need for myself and my family, as this economy begins to unwind, things are going to get crazier and crazier.

[Skiddah]

Bad news in Nova Scotia - http://www.enfieldweeklypress.com/2011/09/27/local-company-owed-money-by-newpage/

[Jamie_C]

There is one contractor in Cape Breton that is owed just over $280,000 for wood ... The largest single amount owed to any wood supplier by a large margin

[mill_boy]

There is one contractor in Cape Breton that is owed just over $280,000 for wood ... The largest single amount owed to any wood supplier by a large margin

I do believe that is Brent maccinis. new page owed/owes about that much. he lives in french vale and has a small sawmill and firewood business as well.

[Jamie_C]

There is one contractor in Cape Breton that is owed just over $280,000 for wood ... The largest single amount owed to any wood supplier by a large margin

I do believe that is Brent maccinis. new page owed/owes about that much. he lives in french vale and has a small sawmill and firewood business as well.

Nope wasn't Brent, if memory serves me correctly the next closest wood supplier was owed about $100,000 less than the guy that was owed about $280,000.

[mill_boy]

ok im just goin by what i heard.

[Keltic]

My neighbor is owed 45K by NewPage, big hit for a two man operation.