May 8, 2008

Pope & Talbot prepare to shut three remaining pulp mills

Company’s Nanaimo and Mackenzie mills employ 800 workers

PORTLAND, Ore.

Pope & Talbot Inc. is preparing to shut its three remaining pulp mills — employing nearly 1,000 workers in British Columbia and Oregon — after creditors declined to extend financing to the bankrupt wood products company, a U.S. business publication reports.

Mark Rossolo, a spokesman for Portland-based Pope & Talbot told the Portland Business Journal that a Canadian bankruptcy court this week extended the company’s bankruptcy protection as it tries to sell the pulp mills.

The bank’s creditors declined to extend the financing to keep the mills operating, so Pope & Talbot began a process to shut down operations at the mills within 48 hours, Rossolo said.

The two British Columbia mills in Nanaimo and Mackenzie employ around 800, while the Oregon mill at Halsey, south of Portland, had a workforce of 180 in February.

The company is preparing a forecast of the financial assets it will need to maintain the idle mills, Rossolo said in an interview with the Journal.

An agreement to sell the Nanaimo, Mackenzie and Halsey mills to PT Pindo Deli for US$105.3 million collapsed last Friday. PT Pindo Deli is a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper, which is owned by Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, Asia’s largest paper producer.

Associated Press

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