A combination of declining demand for newsprint and for glossy paper, cheaper imports and increasing energy and transportation costs have led to several closures and bankruptcies at Maine mills in recent years.
Among the recent mill shake-ups:
• Verso Paper sold off its unprofitable Bucksport mill in 2014, eliminating 500 jobs. The move was part of a complicated $1.4 billion deal that involved the acquisition and then sale of the former NewPage mill in Rumford in January 2015. That mill is now owned by Canada-based Catalyst Paper and employs 500 people. Verso is continuing to operate while it goes through a bankruptcy restructuring. More than 500 people work at its mill in Jay.
• Lincoln Paper and Tissue never recovered from a boiler explosion in 2013 that idled the mill, ultimately forcing it to file bankruptcy in September 2015. Owners were hoping to find a buyer who would continue to operate it, but those hopes were dampened when the mill was sold to liquidators in November and started to sell equipment in February. The mill employed 170 at the time of the bankruptcy filing.
• Old Town pulp mill, which once employed 400, had been foundering since 2006 when Georgia Pacific relocated operations to the South. It went through a series of owners and launched a research facility in conjunction with the University of Maine to explore alternative fuel made from woody biomass. Expera Specialty Solutions bought the pulp mill in December 2014, but closed it the following September, saying that decline in the value of the Canadian dollar and an increase in the number of pulp mills had caused pulp prices to decline. About 195 people lost their jobs.
• More than 4,000 people were once employed by mills in East Millinocket and Millinocket. The Millinocket mill closed in 2008 and the East Millinocket mill went through a series of investors before filing bankruptcy in 2014 and displacing 200 workers. It was sold to a company that specializes in industrial demolitions March 3.
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