International Paper to close Savannah-area mills, affecting 1,100 workers

SAVANNAH — Paper products giant International Paper is shuttering four southeast Georgia facilities, including a nearly 90-year-old mill in Savannah that was the city’s first major manufacturer.

The closures will affect 1,100 hourly and salaried workers in Savannah, neighboring Port Wentworth and Riceboro, located about 45 minutes south of Savannah in Liberty County. According to International Paper, the shutdowns will be completed by Sept. 30.

The plants make containerboard — cardboard boxes and other packaging materials — and the closures are part of a broader initiative to reduce International Paper’s annual containerboard capacity by 1 million tons.

“We understand how deeply these decisions affect our employees, their loved ones, and the surrounding communities,” Tom Hamic, executive vice president and president of International Paper’s North America Packaging Solutions business, said in a statement Thursday. “We are committed to supporting both our employees and customers as we navigate this transition.”

The closings are also expected to impact the region’s timber farmers who supply the mills with pine trees. Georgia is America’s largest timber producer with more than 22 million acres of timberland, according to the Georgia Forestry Association, an industry group.

More than 57,000 people work in Georgia in timber and timber products-related professions, according to a 2022 report from the Georgia Forestry Commission, a government entity. The sector generates about $25 billion in economic output and more than $4.4 billion in wages statewide, the report said.

The mill closures come in the wake of another plant shuttering of a paper manufacturer in the state. Georgia-Pacific, an International Paper rival, announced in May it would close its Cedar Springs facility, winding down operations by the end of July. That mill in Georgia’s southwestern corner also made containerboard and employed roughly 535 workers.

The International Paper shutdowns sent shock waves across the Savannah area. The Savannah mill, on the Savannah River just upstream from the historic downtown, has operated since 1936 and at its peak in the 1950s employed 5,000 workers. The mill, then operated by Union Bag, established the city as a manufacturing hub before Gulfstream opened its Savannah aircraft factory in 1967 and the Georgia Ports Authority became one of America’s busiest trading centers.

The Savannah mill has employed generations of many local families. For them and others, the mill’s closure will mark the end of an era.

“I am devastated to learn of the sudden and permanent closure of International Paper after all these years in Savannah,” said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson. “My greatest concern is for the 650 valued employees and their families whose lives are directly impacted by this decision, especially during these challenging economic times.”

Johnson’s sentiments were shared by community leaders in nearby Liberty County. Georgia House Rep. Al Williams, who chairs the county’s economic development authority, said local officials had been working with International Paper to keep the mill open since the Memphis-based company acquired the Riceboro facility’s operator in January.

Williams lives about 10 miles from the Riceboro mill and said the development authority had been “hoping for a different outcome.”