UPM Prepares to Permanently Close Paper Machine 5 at Blandin Mill at Year-end
(Helsinki, December 20, 2017) UPM on Oct. 24 announced plans to permanently close paper machine 5 at UPM Blandin in Minnesota, (USA) in response to overcapacities in the North American paper market. The company today said that all related processes have now been completed, and paper machine 5 will be permanently closed on December 30, 2017 at the latest.
The number of employees affected is 148.
The closure will reduce UPM’s annual capacity of coated magazine paper by approximately 128,000 tons. Paper production related to paper machine 6 will continue at the Blandin mill.
“UPM is committed to the paper business in the long run. This means that we need to continuously adjust our capacity to market developments, to safeguard the economic stability of UPM’s paper business,” said Ruud van den Berg, Senior Vice President, Magazines, Merchants and Office Business at UPM Paper ENA. “We regret the impact this has on our employees. We have engaged in a fair dialogue with employee representatives in order to mitigate the impact of the closure on the personnel at Blandin.”
UPM Blandin is located in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and currently has the capacity to produce about 370,000 tons per year of lightweight coated (LWC) paper (prior to PM 5 closure). (Source: UPM)
Caption: UPM Blandin paper mill