MEMPHIS, Tenn. (From news reports) -- Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are expected to have a multimillion dollar impact on International Paper Co.'s third-quarter earnings.

Glenn Landau, senior vice president and CFO for IP, was a featured speaker Sept. 13 at Credit Suisse's 30th annual Basic Materials Conference in New York. During his presentation, Landau addressed a number of topics, including the effect of the recent storms.

"In terms of impacts for the third quarter, we estimate roughly a $50 million unfavorable headwind to operations largely due to these hurricanes," Landau said. "We have, in an effort to meet our demand commitments, moved our scheduled outage at the Orange [Texas] mill, which was by chance [scheduled] in this third quarter at the end of September/October, to next year. That will offset $13 million or give us a benefit of $13 million in the quarter. Net-net, approximately we expect just north of $35 million negative impact to the third quarter, largely due to the storm events."

IP's Orange mill went down the morning of Aug. 30 as a result of rising floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey. Mill operations started again on Sept. 9.

Road and rail services are back online, but there are ongoing effects to the supply chain and input costs, Landau said.

"As we move into the fourth quarter, there will be a lingering impact from Harvey and Irma that will primarily be around higher fiber costs and chemical costs, as well. However, we expect these costs to be largely offset by lower OCC [old corrugated container] prices in the coming quarter," Landau said.

IP executed "orderly shutdowns" at its containerboard mill in Savannah, Georgia, and its Port Wentworth fluff mill in Georgia on Sept. 8, due to evacuations. "Disruptions" also occurred across IP box plants in Florida and Georgia. Operations at those plants have since resumed, but Landau said the mills remain down and are "working on an orderly start-up."

The company donated $1 million to aid the communities hit by Harvey; it also donated 175,000 boxes to the American Red Cross and Feeding America to hold supplies.

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