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Mercer to Curtail 20,000 Tonnes of Production at German Mills in December Because of Fiber Limitations
Mercer to Curtail 20,000 Tonnes of Production at German Mills in December Because of Fiber Limitations.
About this update from Mercado Minerals Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\nNEW YORK, Nov. 28 /CNW/ -- Mercer International Inc. (Nasdaq: MERC, TSX:\nMRI.U) announced today that it will curtail production at its German pulp\nmills by approximately 20,000 tonnes in December 2006 because of fiber\nlimitations due to under-delivery of anticipated supply. Mercer is importing\nadditional fiber to Germany and currently expects, subject to weather\nconditions, that its mills will return to full production in January of 2007. \nThe current fiber limitations result primarily because German 2006 harvest\nlevels were insufficient to correct the imbalance of wood supply created by\nlow harvest levels during the very severe winter conditions in Central Europe\nat the start of the year, increased competition for fiber from the energy\nsector and exports to other countries.\nMr. Jimmy S.H. Lee, President and Chairman, said: \"We believe it is\nprudent to curtail production in December so that our German mills can build\nsome fiber inventory going into the new year in the event of seasonal weather\ndisruptions to our supply. We are taking this measure as, unfortunately,\nGerman State and Federal governments and private forestry organizations have\nnot yet reacted to sufficiently rebalance the wood supply as a result of low\nharvesting levels during last winter and the increased wood demand from the\nenergy industry. Further, the governments' biased promotion of wood for\nenergy production has further aggravated the situation. As a result, there\nhas been considerable upward pressure on fiber prices without a corresponding\nincrease in supply available with under-delivery, in certain cases, of\ncontracted amounts from the State forests and other suppliers.\"\nMr. Lee added: \"We hope that this problem will be better addressed in\nthe coming year by all levels of government in Germany and that corrective\nmeasures will be taken to increase the level of wood harvesting to better\nrebalance the wood supply.\"\nMr. Lee concluded: \"We currently expect our German mills to return to\nfull production at the start of the new year.\"\nMercer International Inc. is a global pulp manufacturing company. To\nobtain further information on the company, please visit its web site at\nhttp://www.mercerint.com.\n\nThe preceding includes forward looking statements which involve known and\nunknown risks and uncertainties which may ...