A fibre shortage has left Catalyst Paper Corporation with no options but to curtail production on paper machine 11 at its Powell River mill.
Unable to acquire enough fibre from its regular source in the Okanagan, the company announced on Thursday, April 5, that it will not make paper from paper machine 11 for three weeks, from Monday, April 16, to Monday, May 7.
Layoffs are not anticipated as a result of the curtailment and employees impacted will be given alternate duties at the mill, according to Catalyst vice-president, environmental health and safety, Graham Kissack.
In a memo to employees, Catalyst president and chief executive officer Ned Dwyer stated that, “company management will meet with the unions over the next few days to discuss this curtailment.”
Mill general manager Walter Tarnowsky will provide Powell River employees with additional details on the temporary impacts to the business as a result of the curtailment, according to the memo.
The primary driver for Catalyst’s production cutback is the shortage of fibre, making it uneconomical to run paper machine 10 and paper machine 11, according to Kissack. But, he said recent United States Department of Commerce anti-dumping duties also led to the production cut.
“The tariff decisions certainly did play a factor in our decision to curtail P11 compared to P10,” said Kissack, “the reason being that P11 attracts substantially more duties because of the type of grades we run on it.”
Kissack added that the mill will continue to run paper machine 10 under normal conditions.
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