HELSINKI (News release) -- On October 24, UPM announced plans to permanently close paper machine 5 at UPM Blandin in Minnesota, United States in response to overcapacities in the North American paper market. All related processes have now been completed, and paper machine 5 will be permanently closed latest on 30 December 2017.

The closure will reduce the annual capacity of coated magazine paper by approximately 128,000 tons. The number of positions affected is 148. Paper production related to paper machine 6 will continue at the Blandin site.

"UPM is committed to the paper business in the long run. This means that we need to continuously adjust our capacity to market developments, to safeguard the economic stability of UPM's paper business. We regret the impact this has on our employees. We have engaged in a fair dialogue with employee representatives in order to mitigate the impact of the closure on the personnel at Blandin," says Ruud van den Berg, Senior Vice President, Magazines, Merchants and Office Business at UPM Paper ENA.

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