By Tom Kelly
Editor and Publisher

The layoff of 86 workers at International Paper Company's Bastrop mill announced on May 29 is another in a mounting list of jobs lost in the pulp, paper, and paperboard manufacturing industry in the United States since the middle 1990s.

According to figures presented at the March, 2005 Forestry/Paper Products Summit in Monroe, the pulp, paper, and paperboard industry lost 32,000 jobs, or approximately 14 percent of its workforce, between early 1997 and 2002, the last year of the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A report from American Forest & Paper Association shows 95 paper mills closed in America in the decade from 1991 to 2001. Closings have continued since the peak of 21 in 2001.

In the company announcement last month, IP said the Bastrop mill will be shutting down its No. 3 paper machine between June 5 and July 4, 2005. The machine produces approximately 180,000 tons of paper annually, used primarily for commodity uncoated freesheet paper and some specialty products.

The company said it will continue "to evaluate business conditions and identify opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce costs after this machine is shut down. Such changes could include changes in processes, operating systems, and staffing in all areas of the mill."

Mill manager Greg VanVoorhis said "Our hard-working employees on No. 3 paper machine have consistently performed and made excellent quality products for years, but escalating costs for energy, wood, chemicals, and transportation and difficult business conditions are dictating its shutdown. The mill leadership recognizes the impact the shutdown will have on our employees and their families, and we are committed to helping them through these uncertain times."

Given the uncertainty of the shutdown period, the company said it is offering employees severance benefits and outplacement services, and is working with local employee assistance providers.

Products produced on the No. 3 machine will be transitioned to other mills to meet customer needs, the company said. Two other similar machines at the company's Pensacola, Florida, and Androscoggin, Maine mills were shut down indefinitely in March.

IP's annual uncoated freesheet production currently is about 5.4 million tons per year in the U.S., Brazil, and Europe. The business primarily serves the commercial printing, office papers, envelope and office forms markets.

IP's Louisiana Mill at Bastrop accounts for more than a quarter of the economy of Morehouse Parish, and its economic impact spreads across North Louisiana and Southern Arkansas. Bastrop Mayor Clarence Hawkins was quoted in area media as saying, "We have no indication from the company that this (shutdown) is the first trickle that will lead to a catastrophe. But it's exactly why my primary focus is on diversifying our economy so we're not so dependent on it."

The Louisiana Mill employs about 850 workers, with a direct annual payroll of about $60 million. In a talk at the March Forestry/Paper Products Summit in Monroe (Piney Woods Journal, April 2005) VanVoorhis estimated the total economic impact of the mill to be well over 3,000 jobs and $250 million annually, plus an estimated $110 million for purchase of wood fiber, raw materials, and chemicals, and another $30 million for energy. The mill pays an estimated $11 million in state and local taxes annually, VanVoorhis told the Summit audience at the Monroe Convention Center.

International Paper, headquartered in the United States, is the world's largest paper and forest products company, with operations in over 40 countries and sales in 120 nations.

Commenting on the announced layoffs at Bastrop, J. Randy Bowen, member of the Pulp & Paper Workers Resource Council for the Southern Pine Region, said news of the job losses is unwelcome, but follows a trend which he outlined also in the Forest Summit at Monroe earlier this year.

"We are continuing to talk to our political representatives," Bowen said. "We've got to do something to stop the bleeding, sending our jobs overseas."

While mills have closed across the U.S., resulting in loss of thousands of jobs (see map, page 15) paper production capacity has skyrocketed in foreign countries, most notably in China where most U.S.-based companies now are involved in joint ventures with new paper mills.

At an industry meeting in Baton Rouge sponsored by the LSU AgCenter in January, Henson Moore, president of American Forest and Paper Association said the foreign manufacturing capacity is double trouble for U.S. mills. Factories being installed overseas use the latest, state-of-the-art technology for most efficient, least expensive production. American mills, many of which were first constructed in the 1920s, are kept in operation through maintenance and upgrades which renders them uncompetitive with foreign manufacture. American markets are pressured by foreign imports, causing job losses and shutdowns.

Similar pressures, although of less magnitude, are noted in building materials.

Another major problem for U.S. mills is cost of fiber, according to information provided by Bowen. A position paper on fiber supply from Pulp & Paperworkers Resource Council, says, "While the demand for paper products continues to rise, our mills continue to close. In fact, wood offered for sale from our national forests has been reduced by over 75% in the past decade, contributing to the closure of more than 300 mills in our nation."

"Fiber supply comes from varied sources, such as chips and sawdust from sawmills, recycled paper, logs salvaged from fire-damaged forests, logs not suitable for lumber, and harvest of forest thinnings from private and public forestlands."

"Forests in the United States are gaining more volume each year than is being harvested. However, the volume made available to industry has dwindled alarmingly in the last ten years. This has caused the price of fiber to skyrocket. The rapidly escalating cost of fiber supply has been a major factor in the dramatic rise of production costs within the industry."

Bowen said, "The PPRC requests that Congress pass the legislation needed to help protect an industry that created products we all need and use every day, while at the same time protecting the jobs that support well over a million American families."

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