News Paper Pulp
Verso to restart paper machine in Maine; 120 new jobs created

Feb. 27, 2018 – Verso has announced it will upgrade the shuttered pulp line and No. 3 paper machine at its Androscoggin Mill in Jay, Maine, enabling this equipment to restart for the manufacture of packaging products.

The paper machine and associated pulping capacity were temporarily idled in January 2017 and shut down in July 2017 as a result of declining demand for the graphic paper products formerly produced on the machine, said the company.

With an anticipated completion date in the third quarter of this year, Verso says the project will allow it to diversify its product mix into growing market segments. It anticipates approximately 120 full-time jobs at the mill and additional jobs throughout the Maine forest products supply chain will be created as a result. The estimated total capital cost of the project is US$17 million, $4 million of which will come from a Maine Technology Asset Fund 2.0 challenge grant administered by the Maine Technology Institute. Funds from the grant will be become available as certain milestones in the project are reached.

“Verso identified this upgrade and restart of the No. 3 paper machine and associated equipment at the Androscoggin Mill as part of our continuing development of a holistic strategy that includes repositioning of certain assets, and we want to thank Governor LePage and the Maine Technology Institute for their support in helping to make it possible,” said company CEO B. Christopher DiSantis. “When this project is completed, the Androscoggin Mill will be more competitive in the global marketplace and better positioned for future success.”