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Smurfit-Stone’s Frenchtown Mill to be Scrapped

By Beacon Staff

MISSOULA – An official with Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. says the company’s shuttered Frenchtown paper mill will be sold for scrap.

Ron Megna, assistant general counsel for Smurfit, told the Missoulian on Friday the company has a signed purchase agreement and is removing some of the equipment from the mill. The rest will be sold to MLR Investments LLC, which is an affiliate of Ralston Investments of Portland, Ore.

Calls to the company’s Portland office were not accepted by an overfilled answering machine.

Megna says the buyer intends to demolish the mill and salvage what materials it can, and does not intend to undertake any manufacturing operations on the site. The sale is expected to close in late March or in April.

Smurfit announced in December 2009 its plan to permanently close the Frenchtown linerboard plant, and more than 400 workers had lost their jobs by February 2010. Megna says the sale will not affect the larger merger of Smurfit and competitor Rock-Tenn Co., a Georgia-based packaging manufacturer.