UPM announces Shutdown at its Miramichi Mill

UPM will close its Miramichi mill operations in August for up to one year. The paper mill is scheduled to close late in
August for 9 to 12 months. The Miramichi mill has two machines, producing lightweight coated paper,
with an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes. Despite best efforts, Miramichihas not been able to turn its exports to the US profitable. The mill issuffering from unprecedented strength of the Canadian dollar. Also, marketprices for the coated magazine paper have been decreasing in North America.Demand for magazine grades in North America has been stable, but globally,there continues to be overcapacity in magazine paper, suppressing the salesprice.
In Europe, UPM has permanently ceased production of 530,000 tonnes ofcoated magazine paper during 2006-2007 to reduce the structuralovercapacity and improve profitability of the business. The Voikkaa mill inFinland was permanently closed and a production line in Jämsänkoski,Finland, was converted to another business area. UPM also closed 150,000tonnes of coated fine paper capacity at its Kymi mill, Finland last year."UPM's target is to improve the long-term profitability of the coated paper business. Paper.com has many of the major domestic and foriegn papers on their website.