Gene Therapy
• 2007 U.S. uncoated freesheet capacity was projected at 12.5 million tons. Mid-year plant closings, mainly by International Paper, will reduce this capacity this year by about 240,000 tons.
• Mid-year closings and suspensions of production will cause a major tightening for coated mechanical and coated freesheet in the next six months or more (last year reported in the press as an oversupply both here and abroad). Montreal-based Tembec’s closing of its St. Francisville plant in Louisiana alone took 325,000 tons out of the North American supply, now reduced to about 5 million tons.
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.