Rumford Branch, RUPO / PORU

The only report that has been out there is that the ingester was damaged so...

Sounds like they've already restarted a couple of the paper machines, bringing in pulp from other locations. Good news and quicker than I expected.

From the Bangor Daily News:

Bangor Daily News wrote:Just one week after an explosion destroyed the pulp operation in the Androscoggin Mill in Jay, the mill restarted two paper machines after other mills agreed to supply pulp to keep its paper operations going.

The mill’s owner, Pixelle Specialty Solutions of Pennsylvania, said in a statement Thursday that it has restarted the A4 and A5 paper machines, which are running 24/7. Pixelle CEO Tim Hess said the mill will be able to supply the majority of its customers and is taking orders now. It was unclear how many of the mill’s 500 workers were on the job.

Sappi’s Somerset mill is sending shipments of pulp bales, while ND Paper’s Rumford mill is negotiating to sell pulp to the Androscoggin Mill.

Read more at: https://bangordailynews.com/2020/04/23/ ... pply-pulp/

How long would it take to move pulp by rail from ND to Jay by rail?

That is awesome news! Is the short haul from Rumford to Jay not rail economical?

It will certainly be interesting to see what the future holds for this mill. Will the pulping side be resurrected, will they shift to a paper mill only operation and continue to purchase market pulp, or is there even a chance that the entire operation could be shut down permanently? I realize that the digesters are an important part of the paper making process, but when you look at the entire footprint of the mill, the damaged area makes up a very small portion of it, so you'd a rebuild wouldn't be a huge undertaking.

This is probably a stupid question but are there any preowned digesters on the market — e.g. from other mills that've recently gone out of business — that Pixelle could purchase, disassemble, ship to Jay and reassemble more cost effectively than buying/building a brand new one?

(Clearly the Guilford Way of Doing Things™ has rubbed off on me )

The pulp mill is likely very significant to viability. I'm hopeful they will rebuild it.

The mill will utilize pulp produced at Pixelle mills in Chillicothe, Ohio and Spring Grove, Penn. as well as additional pulp that will be purchased from local mills. The mill's on-site pulping equipment has the capacity to process the incoming pulp, Pixelle said, while recent investments in refining equipment will allow the machines to produce at normal quality and output levels.

John, the guy in the blue car with the wing on back

That is great news.

Wednesday morning's RUPO had about 8-10 pulp cars from ND Paper in Rumford for Pixelle/Verso at Jay on the head pin.
Cars were dropped off when the pick up at Jay was done.
So the 20 mile run in boxcars has begun.

Nice. Good for everybody to keep that running.

Any updates on the situation at Jay? They still running 2 machines? Who’s supplying them with pulp? Any news on the possibility of rebuilding the digester. Thanks.

No news is good news.

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They are buying pulp from Rumford, Old Town, Saint John and Sappi all via boxcar. They also have bought some pulp Quebec as well as their sister Pixelle plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Fire Marshal and Insurance investigators still working on the cause.