Domtar To Invest $160 Million In Its Ashdown Factory For Conversion

Domtar Corp. will make a $160 million capital improvement project in its Ashdown, Arkansas factory to convert a paper machine assembly line into a “high quality fluff pulp line” that will produce diapers, feminine hygiene and adult incontinence products.

The planned conversion is expected to come online by the third quarter 2016 and will allow for the production of up to 516,000 metric tons of fluff pulp per year once the machine is in full operation. The project will also result in the permanent reduction of 364,000 short tons of annual uncoated freesheet production capacity in the second quarter of 2016, the company said.

“The fluff pulp conversion project at the Ashdown mill is an important step in advancing our strategy to generate $300 to 500 million of EBITDA from growth businesses,” said John D. Williams, Domtar CEO. “We are expanding our presence in a growing business that will allow us to support our top-tier supplier position with some of the world’s largest producers of absorbent hygiene products. Once completed, Ashdown, together with our Plymouth mill will provide a platform to further strengthen our leading position as an effective producer of high quality fluff pulp with nearly one million tonnes of total production capacity.”

Domtar said it would also invest in a pulp bale line that will provide flexibility to manufacture paper-grade softwood pulp, contingent on market conditions.

David Struhs, VP Corporate Communications and Sustainability, tells Talk Business & Politics that the plant currently employs a little more than 1,000 workers.

He said he expects that 142 jobs will be lost by the end of 2016 through the reconfiguration of the plant. The company plans to downsize as many of those jobs to meet that goal through natural attrition, Struhs said.