By KIM REID,
the Georgian
What was once a small fishing community, then a US Air Force Base and now a community relying on its own resources to survive and succeed, the Town of Stephenville has certainly witnessed numerous changes over the past 50 years.
Just last year, one of the biggest employers in the Bay St. George area, Abitibi Consolidated, once a liner board operation, celebrated its 20th anniversary.
There had been two well established paper mills in the province for many years, the former Price Pulp and Paper Limited in Grand Falls-Windsor and Bowaters Newfoundland Limited in Corner Brook. The provincial government was encouraging the development of a third.
So Stephenville became the preferred site for a new mill partly to alleviate high umemployment due to the closure of the base and also because of the existing infrastructure.
Even more intriguing was the deep water harbour open to shipping year round and ready to access the forest resources of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Originally a proposal was handed in to the provincial government for the construction of a liner board mill in Stephenville in combination with logging operations and a wood chip mill in Goose Bay. These wood chips would be loaded aboard 65,000 ton vessels and shipped to Stephenville for final processing.
In 1967, legislation was passed authorizing the province to enter into agreements with Melville Pulp and Paper Limited and Melville Forest Products Limited, both subsidiaries of Canadian Javelin Limited.
At the end of 1968 plans for the project were changing and the government announced that the wood chip mill was to be constructed in Stephenville, not in Goose Bay as originally planned. It was also announced that plans called for wood to be shipped to Stephenville as raw logs and in smaller ships than previously anticipated.
In 1969 the province and Javelin Limited and three subsidiaries entered an agreement providing for the construction of the liner board mill, with a guarantee by the province for debt associated with the project and the creation of a first mortgage on the assets to be held by the province.
Construction began late in 1969. Due to cost overruns and construction delays, the total estimated construction cost increased from $53 million to $91 million by March of 1971. Costs continued to escalate and by 1972 the project was having some serious difficulties.
Limited docking facilities and the short shipping season from Goose Bay meant that only 200,000 cords of wood of the projected 469,000 cords could be supplied from Labrador.
Due to financial difficulties arising from the construction of the mill, the provincial government was forced to pass legislation in 1972 authorizing a take over by the province and a Crown corporation, Labrador Linerboard Limited (LLL). Construction was finally completed in May of 1973 but commercial production began around April of 1974.
A recession in the paper industry resulted in an excess capacity and weak prices in 1975, and workers with LLL went on strike for 109 days. Within the first three years the mill was in operation, it took some serious losses.
An Advisory Board was formed in 1977 and in a preliminary report, the board concluded that if the mill continued to operate, it would take further substantial losses. A few months later it was decided that cash drain could not be avoided and the mill was shut down on August 26, 1977.
It was in 1978 that the mill converted to bleached Kraft and newsprint as analysis showed it was having the most attractive return on investment and called for the lowest wood requirement. The mill was officially converted to newsprint and opened on Sept. 9, 1981.
Later on, in 1997, Abitibi Price and Stone Consolidated, two of North America's finest paper companies, merged to form Abitibi Consolidated. Today, newsprint from the Stephenville site is manufactured, inspected and shipped to customers throughout the world.
Jay Backus, present general manager of Abitibi Consolidated in Stephenville says that today the mill is continuing to set production rate records while maintaining efficiency at 90 per cent. In 2001, the Stephenville mill set a new production record with paper machine speed averaging 80 fpm faster than the previous year, despite the three weeks of downtime that year.
This year the mill is still looking into improvements in cost structure and keeping a close eye on two areas which have the potential to significantly impact the mill - power costs and wood supply.
The mill is also currently awaiting word of a proposed increase in power rates from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. An increase which would end up costing the mill an extra $3.2 million per year and, put into perspective, this would be equivalent to 48 full time jobs.
This mill also hopes to put concerns of wood supply behind them this year.
Abitibi in Stephenville calls for 480,000 cubic metres of wood in 2002 with approximately 57 per cent of that to be purchased offshore, while the rest will be obtained from crown land. At the moment, the mill is bringing in wood from Quebec and pulpwood from Labrador.
Brian Peckford, then-premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, places a shipping label on the first roll of newsprint produced at the Abitibi Price mill in Stephenville.
Inside the Abitibi mill in 1980 as the mill was converting to a newsprint mill before it re-opened in 1981.
A bronze plaque commemorating the official opening of the newsprint mill was presented to the company on behalf of the provincial government. From left are John Carson, the first mill manager, MP Brian Tobin, Premier Brian Peckford and Newman Maclenaghen.
Abitibi Consolidated in Stephenville