Australian Paper’s Shoalhaven mill is in serious danger of closing despite the government extending its security passport paper contract for another year.
Mill manager Bruce Borchardt says the mill is struggling with lower demand from a contracting print market and competition from cheap overseas imports.
“Manufacturing in Australia is doing it tough and the high Australian dollar means we struggle to export and we have to compete with overseas importers producing with lower costs in many countries,” he says.
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He says while the passport contract extension makes the situation less dire, the mill’s future, and that of its 80 staff, is still under serious threat unless the industry supports it.
“Without broad recognition from printers, paper merchants and government of the value that local paper manufacturing adds to our communities, there is a very real risk that Shoalhaven Mill will not remain in operation,” he says.
Borchardt says the mill’s production has fallen from 70,000 tonnes a year on three machines in 2006 to about 12,000 on one machine today, and that shifts have been cut from five to three in the past two years at the cost of 30 jobs, mostly voluntary redundancies.
“Australian Paper calls on the Australian Government to recognise the sustainability advantages of Australian made speciality paper when organising the printing of reports, gazettes, business stationery, ballot papers, business cards and brochures,” he says.
“Australian Government procurement for printed materials utilising recycled papers from Shoalhaven would be in line with its own ICT Sustainability plan, and would create an example for others to follow in mapping out a positive future for the Shoalhaven Mill.”
Borchardt says the Shoalhaven Mill provides a wide range of papers, including recycled papers, chemically sensitised and watermarked security papers, which are not available from any other manufacturer in Australia.
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