Bowater Schedules Shutdown of No.3 Paper Machine for Conversion

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Bowater Incorporated (NYSE: BOW) (TSE: BWX) (Greenville, South Carolina) is nearing completion of a rebuild of its No. 3 paper machine at its kraft pulp and paper mill in Catawba, South Carolina. Bowater has scheduled the middle of January 2003 for a shutdown of the machine to complete the necessary tie-ins. The No. 3 paper machine production will be transformed from newsprint grades to lightweight coated (lwc) grades. The converted machine will have an annual production capacity of approximately 330,000 short tons of lightweight coated (lwc) groundwood papers. Production of lightweight coated papers at the mill will increase to around 700,000 short tons.

Industrialinfo.com began tracking the No. 3 project in March of 2000, as part of a mill modernization that included a new pulp fiberline. The fiberline is under construction and is scheduled to come online at the end of 2003.

Jacobs Engineering Group (Greenville, South Carolina) is the engineering firm on record. Kamtech, as general contractor will self-perform as well as subcontract construction activities.

The company makes coated and uncoated groundwood papers, bleached kraft pulp and lumber products. The company has 12 pulp and paper mills in the United States, Canada and South Korea and 13 North American sawmills that produce softwood and hardwood lumber. Bowater also operates two facilities that convert a groundwood base sheet to coated products. Bowater's operations are supported by approximately 1.5 million acres of timberlands owned or leased in the United States and Canada and 33 million acres of timber cutting rights in Canada.