RUMFORD — Catalyst Paper announced Wednesday that a temporary shutdown of the No. 12 paper machine here would be extended to August, resulting in the layoff of approximately 50 workers.
The machine manufactures coated paper used in catalogs and magazines.
Rumford mill spokesman Tony Lyons said the layoffs are “directly market-related.”
The machine has been on a temporary shutdown since the beginning of May and has been “up and down for the last year or so,” he said.
“We have decided to extend the downtime of the No. 12 paper machine through the end of August,” Lyons said. “The extension of the downtime is expected to impact about 50 employees.”
The layoffs will be based on “last in, first out,” Lyons said.
“We’re not laying off workers based on their job titles,” he said. Those hired last will be the first to be laid off.
Lyons said the mill will be “re-evaluating the situation throughout the summer.”
In November 2013, the Rumford mill announced it would stop making pulp on the No. 12 paper machine due to “tough economic conditions.” About 120 workers were laid off. Forty-one hourly employees were recalled in April 2014 when the mill started using the machine again.
In January, Catalyst Paper Holdings bought Rumford Paper Co. and a second NewPage mill in Biron, Wis., for $62.4 million in cash, with the hopes of increasing their production capacity by 65 percent, to 995,000 tons per year.
Catalyst Paper said the Rumford mill has the capacity to produce 510,000 tons of coated specialty, coated freesheet and coated groundwood paper and 130,000-ton pulp capacity to produce hardwood and softwood pulp.
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