New Domtar fluff pulp plant

Having increased the sales of its Personal Care business from $71 million in 2011 to $566 million in 2013 – primarily through the acquisitions of Associated Hygienic Products (AHP) and Attends Healthcare – Domtar Corporation has announced a new $160 million fluff pulp capital project. 

The company will convert a paper machine at its Ashdown, Arkansas mill to a high quality fluff pulp line for absorbent products, which is expected to come online by the third quarter of 2016. It will allow for the production of up to 516,000 metric tons of fluff pulp per year once the machine is in full operation and at the same time result in the permanent reduction of 364,000 short tons of annual uncoated freesheet production capacity. 

“The fluff pulp conversion project at the Ashdown mill is an important step in advancing our strategy to generate $300 to 500 million of earnings from growth businesses,” said Domtar CEO John D. Williams. “We are expanding our presence in a growing business that will allow us to support our top?tier supplier position with some of the world’s largest producers of absorbent hygiene products. Once completed, Ashdown, together with our Plymouth mill, will provide a platform to further strengthen our leading position as an effective producer of high quality fluff pulp with nearly one million tonnes of total production capacity.”