Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 06 Dec 2013 -- Pipe damage has caused a production stoppage at Fortress Paper's Thurso pulp mill in Quebec. The site is not expected to reopen before 10 December.

Production at the Thurso pulp mill of Canadian pulp and paper manufacturer Fortress Paper is currently down. The company reported that an incident occurred at the site on 2 December. There were damages to pipes connected to two of the mill's digesters, Fortress Paper explained. According to the company, the mill needs to be shut down completely until at least 10 December in order to repair the damage and investigate the efficiency of certain similar pipe installations at the mill. The impact of the incident would be at least six day's equivalent of lost production, said Fortress Paper.

During the downtime, almost all employees will be sent home. The cogeneration facility at the mill is said to continue to produce heat and power for the mill, but at a reduced rate. An update on the situation will be published on 10 December.

The Thurso mill in Quebec can produce dissolving as well as northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) pulp for premium packaging, hygiene paper and technical and specialty papers. Only recently, the company announced it had pulled back from its plans to produce only dissolving pulp at the mill. Instead, Fortress Paper intends to operate the pulp line as a swing machine. The line's capacity is either 200,000 tpy of dissolving pulp or 250,000 tpy of NBHK.