Smurfit-Stone plans to close two mills with 599 employees in December

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., Dec. 14 - Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. said it plans to close its Ontonagon, Mich., and Missoula, Mont., mills permanently on Dec. 31.

The Ontonagon mill, with 182 employees, ended its operations in September when it began taking market-related downtime. The Missoula mill, which has 417 employees, will continue operating until Dec. 31.

"These decisions were made to ensure the company's long-term growth and profitability and do not reflect on the hard work and commitment of the employees at the Ontonagon and Missoula mills," president and chief operating officer Steve Klinger said in a press release.

"We recognize that closing facilities is always difficult on our employees, their families and the communities, and we will work with our employees, union representatives and public officials during these transitions," Klinger added.

The Ontonagon mill, which produces 280,000 tons of medium annually, and the Missoula mill, which produces 620,000 tons of liner annually, are high-cost facilities that do not provide adequate long-term returns, the company said.

The company expects to incur a restructuring charge of about $284 million, of which roughly $246 million is non-cash, in the fourth quarter.

Smurfit-Stone, a Chicago-based manufacturer of paperboard and paper-based packaging, filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 26, 2009. Its Chapter 11 case number is 09-10235.

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