AbitibiBowater Cutbacks Include Newsprint at Three Mills

By: E&P Staff Responding to steep declines in demand this year, AbitibiBowater said Thursday it will suspend production indefinitely at one U.S. mill and four in Canada, affecting, and in some cases ending, the jobs of more than 1,500 employees.

Cutbacks commence at the Montreal-based pulp and papermaking giant on Oct. 31 as part of the company's bankruptcy restructuring. It will shutter operations at a digital printing paper plant in Beaupre, Quebec, and shut down one of two newsprint machines in Clermont, Quebec, and a commercial printing paper machine In Fort Frances, Ontario.

Newsprint production will be further curtailed when output is halved at AbitibiBowater's Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, plant and production is interrupted at the Coosa Pines, Ala., facility.

Besides falling demand from newspapers and magazines, AbitibiBowater is weighed down by considerable debt dating to the 2007 merger of U.S. producer Bowater and Canada's Abitibi Consolidated.