The Japanese Oji Holdings is now also planning to end paper production at the Kinleith site in New Zealand.
Kinleith Mill is Oji’s largest facility that manufactures pulp and paper, with around 230 employees.
In November, Chief Executive Officer Dr Jon Ryder said: “After extensive work and considering a variety of options, we are proposing to simplify Kinleith Mill’s operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing loss-making paper production. Therefore, we are consulting on a plan to permanently shut the Kinleith PM6 paper machine and move to a paper import model for our packaging operations.
“Manufacturing paper has become unprofitable. Paper production at Kinleith Mill has suffered significant losses for several years and we see no prospect of the situation improving.
“Due to the complexities of operational changes required at the mill for this proposal, the exact number of potential job losses is unknown at this stage. However, we anticipate approximately 230 roles may be affected. The wider impacts will become clearer as we work through the consultation period, through to final decision and into next year.
“This proposal takes into account our ability to continue to serve our customers with as little disruption as possible. We propose to continue producing paper at Kinleith Mill through to the end of June 2025, to ensure we meet our packaging customer obligations and provide a smooth transition to new paper supply arrangements.
“Under this proposal, there would be no change to the wastepaper collection service provided by OjiFS Fullcircle, which will continue to collect, sort and bale wastepaper throughout New Zealand for recycling.”