Some 670 South Carolinians will soon be out of a job as International Paper shutters its Georgetown paper mill.
The 87-year-old mill, which produces fluff pulp used in diapers as well as paper, will shut down in stages with a full closure expected by the end of the year, the company said in a statement Thursday.
“This decision is especially difficult because of the impact on hard-working employees, their families and the surrounding communities,” Georgetown mill manager Bernie Chascin said in a statement.
In total, the closure impacts 526 hourly employees and 148 salaried employees. The company is offering severance packages to all employees.
International Paper is Georgetown’s largest employer, according to the Georgetown County Economic Development Office.
Other large employers include Interfor timber mill; SafeRack, which makes metal racks for truck and railcar loading; Agru, which makes plastic pipe and fittings; and chemical maker 3V. Those four companies each employ between 200 and 300 people.
International Paper will continue to make fluff pulp at its other eight U.S. pulp plants. Its contract for the specialized products made at the Georgetown mill is ending at the end of the year.
The closure follows losses in the company’s global cellulose fibers, which includes fluff pulp.
That segment of International Paper experienced a $17 million loss in 2023, according the company’s annual report. The business segment is currently ahead $24 million for the year, according the company’s quarterly earnings reports, with gains in the second and third quarters offsetting losses in the first three months of 2024.
The mill opened in 1937 as Southern Kraft Paper Mill on 525 acres along the Sampit River.
It previously shut down in the early 1990s for nearly a year, reopening in 1992, after a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study found the mill had the highest level of pollutants in its wastewater of any mill in the country.
The shutdown gave the company time to make upgrades and improve its pollution control measures.
In 2021, International Paper spun off much of its sheet paper business into a new, separate company — a move which impacted its Eastover facility in the Midlands.
But at that time, the company held on to the mill in Georgetown, which produces more specialized paper products, including the paper sticks used in cotton swabs and the paper backing to adhesive labels.