Shanying International has renamed its first pulp and paper mill in the U.S., Phoenix Paper Wickliffe LLC.

Shanying International, the third-largest producer of containerboard in China, purchased the idled Wickliffe, Kentucky mill earlier this year from Verso Corporation for $16 million. The deal was conducted on behalf of Shanying by China-based investment group, Global Win Wickliffe LLC.

The company says it is investing $150 million to upgrade the mill and convert its production from uncoated and coated freesheet grades to the production of kraft linerboard. The mill will also produce bleached hardwood and softwood pulp, and recycled (OCC) pulp.

Verso idled the Wickliffe mill in November 2015 and then announced its permanent closure on April 5, 2016. At that time, Verso said the closure was the result of “a continuing and accelerated decline in demand for the company's coated paper products and a significant influx of imports driven by the strength of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies.”

Over 310 people were employed at the mill.

At the time of its closure, the Wickliffe mill had one paper machine with the capacity to produce 285,000 tons per year of coated freesheet, specialty and uncoated paper, and the capacity to produce 30,000 tons per year of dried market pulp.

During the acquisition process in August, Global Win said it hoped to restart the mill by the end of 2018. Currently, there have been no announcements from the company as to the status of the restart.

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