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Another mill shutdown-Verso, Sartell, MN

Started by barbender, August 03, 2012, 09:27:22 PM

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barbender

Well, announced yesterday the Verso paper mill in Sartell will not reopen, it was shut down on Memorial day by an explosion and fire that killed one employee. With the down market and the amount of damage done, they decided to shutter it. 260 people will be out of work. They had already had 1 big layoff a while back, they shut down one line. That leaves us 3 paper mills in the state, our industry is getting to be in pretty tough shape.
Too many irons in the fire

1270d

This brings home a little how lucky we are here in the UP.   Hope things start looking up in your area soon.

thecfarm

That is too bad. I never thought that the paper industry would look the way it does in Maine. I use to live next town over from a paper mill.Only 20 minutes away from it now. Things are not the way they was even 20 years ago.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

snowstorm

Quote from: barbender on August 03, 2012, 09:27:22 PM
Well, announced yesterday the Verso paper mill in Sartell will not reopen, it was shut down on Memorial day by an explosion and fire that killed one employee. With the down market and the amount of damage done, they decided to shutter it. 260 people will be out of work. They had already had 1 big layoff a while back, they shut down one line. That leaves us 3 paper mills in the state, our industry is getting to be in pretty tough shape.
i know someone that was sent out to that mill. he works for verso. i asked what caused the explosion. his answer was i cant say. he talked as if there was a huge amount of damage and maybe not a lot left to rebuild. he was out there for several weeks last time i saw him he was headed for the   U P

Ed_K

Time to educate the public to convert to pellets to heat their homes and business's. That way these mills can convert to pellet mills.
Bio-mas mag has an artical on how LNG and #2 heat will increase and pellets will stay flat with little increase as diesel moves up.
Ed K

chevytaHOE5674

Quote from: 1270d on August 03, 2012, 10:01:26 PM
This brings home a little how lucky we are here in the UP.   Hope things start looking up in your area soon.

Lucky?? ha

Smurfit stone in Ontonagon closed/demolished, NewPage paper mill in Niagara Wi closed/demolished, Newpage filed for bankruptcy and shorted a few suppliers out of money causing them to go out of business (one a good friend of mine), future uncertain as a paper mill.

Sawmill markets are just about as shaky, many mills closed or drastically downsized.

The UP once had multiple outlets for pulp and now we are down to basically two unless you send it out of state.

Jamie_C

Here in NS we are down to only 1 pulp mill, we have lost the Bowater/Abitibi/Resolute Mill (too many names the last few years) and the former NewPage Mill is still shutdown pending the bankruptcy sale to Stern Partners for about $33 million give or take a bit. I'm not holding out much hope that the mill will get re-opened as they have some pretty fancy tax schemes proposed (transferring taxable losses from NewPage to our power company in exchange for severely reduced power rates for starters), they want to reduce their power bill by about 2/3 which will mean an increase for every other customer on the grid despite what they say. It is not a good time for forestry around here at all.

barbender

I think forest industries are in tough shape throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Too many irons in the fire

lumberjack48

1980 is when i seen the bottom drop right out of the logging industry. I watched big loggers lose all their equipment in including me. The banks didn't want the equipment, it wasn't worth anything, just Penney's on a dollar.

This was when i had to turn Company logger, something i said i'd never do. There was no way you could bid against the big company's for stumpage, they ran the show.

It has never recovered sense then, not the way as i remember the way it was before 1980. I was used to getting payed every Fri. night on the landing by the Timber broker, sometimes 3 difference Brokers. This is when logging was fun, pull as much wood as you could every week and get payed for it. When i went Co. i had to wait until they hauled the wood, sometimes this was a month, then still had to peg to get payed. You can't have a big family,
mortgage, light bill, heat bills, fuel, skidder payments, saws and ect and work like this. [ you can't do it] O, yes then if i pulled to much wood they'd shut me down, barbender knows who i'm talking about.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

barbender

Yes I do Duane, and they haven't gotten any better. It's kind of telling when with this tight market and lack of mills to send wood to, they are never even mentioned. It's like that mill doesn't even exist. But when a logging business has bills that come in on a monthly basis, they can't wait a year to get paid :(


Too many irons in the fire

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