Umoe has no plans to open Blackville mill

March 23, 2009

As Umoe Solar moves ahead in Newcastle, the saws will stay silent at the former UPM mill in Blackville.

Umoe spokesman Ernst Andersen said the company doesn't believe it is viable for them to re-open the mill, but they haven't made any other plans for it yet.

"I don't think there's any chance we can re-open that one, but it's not taken any decision what we want to do with it."

Former owner UPM shut the mill down in 2007 and when they sold their New Brunswick assets to Umoe earlier this year, the mill was part of the deal.

When they closed the mill, it threw 60 people out of work in the village with a population of about 1,000 people.

Sawmills across the province have struggled in recent years, with the New Brunswick Forest Products Association reporting last spring that 13 of 61 mills in New Brunswick were operating at full capacity.

Umoe continues to operate a sawmill they purchased from UPM in Bathurst.

When told about a rumour the Blackville mill was re-opening, Andersen seemed surprised by the speculation.

"That's not coming from us."

Andersen wondered if people may have heard market conditions have improved, but added Umoe doesn't plan to re-open the mill.

"No, there's no chance of that."

Blackville mayor Glen Hollowood said he hadn't heard any talk of the mill re- opening, although he had noticed the company was installing cameras to replace security staff at the site.

"I haven't heard any runours at all."

The market still isn't good and he didn't expect to see Umoe re-open the mill, he said.

"I think the only way it will re-open if somebody else buys it."

Hollowood was a former mill employee and worked there for about 26 years until UPM shut it down. He said a lot of people lost jobs when the mill closed.

"A lot of them are gone now and tried to get some other jobs, but there's some that still haven't got jobs and it's bad for them."

A lot of the people who worked at the mill were there for most of their lives and many of them had little in the way of education, he said.

"There's just not too much there for them."