Abitibi May Soon Sell Quebec Mills

By: Quebec mills owned by newsprint giant Abitibi-Consolidated could soon be sold, according to the Competition Bureau of Canada, which had ordered Abitibi to sell the Port Alfred newsprint mill owing to its dominance in the Eastern Canadian market after acquiring Donohue two years ago. A pulp mill in St-Felicien and several sawmills also are for sale.

"We are fully confident that the Port Alfred plant will sell fairly quickly," Bureau Assistant Deputy Commissioner Robert Lancop told Reuters last Thursday, adding that there are "a number of interested parties."

Earlier in the week, Abitibi denied a report, in Le Quotidien, Chicoutimi, Quebec, of negotiations to sell the same operations in the area north of Quebec City for $650 million to a Finnish company through a management arrangement with Kruger Inc.