International Paper Courtland / Closure will cost 1,100 jobs

Lawr­ence Co­un­ty’s lar­gest em­ploy­er, In­ter­nation­al Paper an­noun­ced this morn­ing (Wed­nesday) that it plans to per­manent­ly close its Co­urtland paper mill. The plant is Lawr­ence Co­un­ty’s lar­gest em­ploy­er.

Here is what In­ter­nation­al Paper in Mem­phis had to say about the de­cis­ion:

”In­ter­nation­al Paper (NYSE: IP) today an­noun­ced plans to per­manent­ly close its Co­urtland, Ala. Mill, a facil­ity that is part of the com­pany’s Print­ing and Com­munica­tions Pap­ers Busi­ness. The mill will shut down in stages with a full closure ex­pec­ted to be com­plete by the end of the first quart­er of 2014. This mill closure will re­duce IP’s North American un­coated and co­ated frees­heet paper pro­duc­tion capac­ity by 950,000 tons, of which 765,000 is un­coated frees­heet.

“These de­cis­ions are es­pecial­ly dif­ficult be­cause of the im­pact to long-serving and hard-working em­ployees, their famil­ies and the sur­round­ing com­munit­ies,” said In­ter­nation­al Paper Chair­man and CEO, John Faraci. “This de­cis­ion to per­manent­ly close capac­ity is primari­ly being driv­en by de­mand de­cline for un­coated frees­heet paper pro­ducts in the Uni­ted States.”

The Co­urtland Mill pro­duces pap­ers for forms, en­velopes, labels, co­pi­ers, print­ers and magazines. The de­mand for un­coated frees­heet in North America has been in de­cline since 1999 and has re­cent­ly ac­celerated as con­sum­ers con­tinue to switch to electronic al­ter­natives such as on­line pub­lica­tions and electronic bi­ll­ing and fil­ing.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via International Paper Courtland shuttering – 1,100 to lose jobs | The Quad-Cities Daily.