Arctic Paper decides to close Mochenwangen mill

19 November 2015

The search for a buyer for the Arctic Paper Mochenwangen mill has not been successful so far and the company now announced the closure of the German site in December.

The German paper mill Arctic Paper Mochenwangen will cease production and operations in December 2015. The decision by the parent company, the Polish pulp and paper manufacturer Arctic Paper S.A., was based on the losses incurred by the mill and the lack of success in negotiations with potential investors, the site's managing director Lothar Burchardt told EUWID. Once negotiations with the works council were finalised on 15 November, employees were informed about the planned redundancies. The implementation of measures to eliminate further losses at Arctic Paper Mochenwangen had been announced in July this year as part of the profit improvement programme 2015/2016.

The paper factory had been loss-making for some time, the company said. Due in particular to rising raw material costs, the monthly deficits had been recently in the high five-figure range, which had intensified the situation at the paper mill, it added. When negotiations with potential investors stalled, the management wanted to send a signal with the announcement and implementation of the decision to close the site. This "state of uncertainty" had to be put to an end, said Burchardt.

Arctic Paper Mochenwangen is considered a well-established supplier in the mechanical book paper segment, in particular. The mill employs 190 people and has a production capacity of 95,000 tpy of paper and 55,000 tpy of groundwood pulp. Its two paper machines mainly produce uncoated mechanical papers for book production and specialty papers, such as for flooring and wallpaper.

 

euwid-paper.com