IP closes Natchez dissolving pulp mill

Pulp & Paper, Sep 2003

PULP

One of North America's largest dissolving pulp producers, International Paper Co. (IP), exited the business-closing its Natchez, Miss., mill. Meanwhile, the mill's workers hoped to purchase the property and form a new company through an Employee Stock Ownership Program. Workers at Appleton Papers Inc., now called Appleton, did an employee buyout of the company in 2001.

The Natchez mill, which has a listed capacity of 385,000 mtpy and opened in 1950, produces high-quality hardwoodbased mainly acetate dissolving pulp. It has a narrow base of customers, such as Eastman Chemicals Inc. and Celanese A.G., and demand in many of its end-use markets, such as cigarette filter tow, acetate yarns, sausage casings, rayon textile fibers, and specialty papers, has declined in recent years.

Rayonier Inc. has said that it expected IP's capacity shut at Natchez would "provide strategic growth opportunities" for its performance specialty fibers business. Rayonier has a 572,000-mtpy dissolving pulp mill that makes hardwood-based acetate in Jesup, Ga.