Resolute Forest Products kraft pulp mill in Fort Frances, Ontario, taking unexpected one-week shut due to lack of necessary personnel; complex has seen job cuts in recent years

Diane Keaton

LOS ANGELES , March 19, 2012 (Industry Intelligence) – Resolute Forest Products' kraft pulp mill in Fort Frances, Ontario, took an unexpected one-week shut starting March 18, the Kenora Daily Miner and News reported on March 19.

The mill was taken offline due to a lack of qualified personnel for the second-class stationary engineer positions.

About 70 employees are affected.

Forty-five positions at the mill were eliminated following a nine-week market outage that began late last year. Both paper machines went down during the last five weeks of 2011 and remained shut in January, while the kraft pulp mill went down around Christmas.

In the current shut, the paper mill is continuing to operate.

Resolute’s director of Canadian Public Affairs, Pierre Choquette, said, “We are continuously evaluating every aspect of our operations to see what are the best options going forward.”

The Fort Frances complex currently employs 521 people, down from 650 a few years ago.

It produces roughly 6,000 tonnes per month of pulp and 19,000 tonnes/month of commercial printing papers.

The primary source of this article is the Kenora Daily Miner and News, Kenora, Ontario, on March 19, 2012.

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