ATLANTA (News release) -- WestRock Company has provided an initial update following the landfall of Hurricane Michael and its impact on the company's containerboard and pulp mill located in Panama City, Florida.
As always, our first priority is the safety of our employees and their families. The Panama City area has been devastated by this hurricane, and we are working to support our employees and this community as the recovery begins.
An orderly shut-down process was started on Monday. The mill was in the direct path of the hurricane's landfall, and it sustained a substantial amount of damage to buildings and equipment.
Our team is currently assessing the extent of the damage to the mill. At this time, we do not know when the mill will resume operations; this will depend upon the extent of the damage to our facility and the storm's impact on local infrastructure, including available power supply, the ability of our employees to travel to the mill, and other factors.
The mill has annual production capacity of 353,000 tons of linerboard and 292,000 tons of market pulp.
The continued storm path is projected to traverse several states in which we have additional operations and the potential impact, if any, on these operations is unknown at this time.
We will provide additional updates as more information is available, and we have fully assessed the impact to our employees, local infrastructure and the mill.
