Miamisburg, Ohio, USA, 08 December 2010 -- /PRNewswire/ -- NewPage Corporation today announced that it will close its Whiting, Wisconsin, mill at the end of February 2011. The Whiting mill currently operates two paper machines, which produce approximately 250,000 tons annually of coated paper used by the publishing and printing industry, with a primary focus on mail-order catalog, magazine, and retailer end uses.

"This remains a difficult time for the paper industry, for NewPage, and for many of our customers," said George Martin, NewPage president and chief executive officer. "While we have seen modest recovery in our coated markets, we continue to monitor the supply and demand balance and make the difficult choices needed to avoid oversupplying those markets. NewPage has the capacity and operational flexibility to produce both coated groundwood and coated freesheet on the same machines at other facilities. Therefore, we do not expect any interruptions in service to our customers while closing the Whiting mill, which is our highest cost-per-ton coated groundwood mill."

Approximately 360 employees will be affected by the shutdown of the Whiting mill.  

Headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, NewPage Corporation is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with USD 3.1 billion in net sales for the year ended 31 December 2009. The company's product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated freesheet, coated groundwood, supercalendered, newsprint, and specialty papers. NewPage owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in the United States, and in Nova Scotia, Canada. Without giving effect to the closure of the Whiting, Wisconsin, mill, these mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 4.4 million tons of paper, including approximately 3.2 million tons of coated paper, approximately 1.0 million tons of uncoated paper, and approximately 200,000 tons of specialty paper. To learn more, visit www.NewPageCorp.com.