Citing shipping problems around the world, Paper Excellence is planning to shut down its Crofton mill for two weeks next month, temporarily putting 200 people out of work.
The company said it will curtail operations between Nov. 9 and Nov. 24 in order to coordinate it with a planned maintenance shut down of the facility’s biomass power boiler.
“The pandemic has significantly and negatively impacted global freight which affects the container market, shipping routes, port performance, trucking lines, railways and warehouses,” said Stew Gibson, vice president of operations. “Many companies, Paper Excellence among them, are struggling to ship product in a timely and cost-effective manner.”
The company estimates the shutdown will mean losing about 15,000 tonnes of paper production and 19,000 tonnes of pulp.
Gibson said he doesn’t expect the shutdown will have an impact on the plant’s order book.
“Once the planned maintenance shutdown of the facility’s biomass power boiler is complete, the mill is scheduled to restart in late November,” he said.
The mills have been in this position before.
Last year Paper Excellence shut down a paper machine at Powell River due to a malware attack that affected the company’s IT systems, while parts of Crofton’s mill were shut down because of the combined impact of that external malware attack, a fibre shortage, the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced global paper demand.
However, Paper Excellence has maintained it is bullish on its coastal operayions.
This year, it announced it would permanent closing its Mackenzie pulp mill in the Interior in order to concentrate investment on the coast.
The Crofton mill, which employs about 560 people, has made some inroads with new food-packaging paper while maintaining its traditional printing and writing-grade products.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
