Domtar to curtail paper production at Ashdown mill in Arkansas

Domtar will indefinitely curtail paper operations at its subsidiary’s Ashdown, Arkansas, facility. The Ashdown Mill’s A62 paper machine and associated sheeter will be indefinitely idled by the end of June, reducing Domtar’s annual uncoated freesheet capacity by 216,000 short tons.

“Domtar restarted the previously idled A62 paper machine in 2021 at a time when our North American customer base needed additional supply of uncoated freesheet paper,” said Senior Vice President of Paper & Packaging Commercial Rob Melton. “That investment was made to ensure our customers had the paper they needed to match their increasing demand. “Now, after careful analysis and consideration, we have determined our customer demand for these products has reached a level that no longer requires this production capacity,” Melton explained.

Related to this change, the Ashdown mill will restart its pulp dryer, resulting in 165,000 air dried metrics tons annually of added capacity of southern bleached softwood kraft pulp. This new capacity increases the mill’s total to 700,000 air dried metric tons annually, inclusive of 442,000 air dried metrics tons of fluff pulp.