Mercer International Inc. announced that its Peace River mill in Alberta has commenced a period of downtime to facilitate essential repairs on its digester following a mechanical failure.

The company anticipates that the repair work and associated assessments will be completed by mid-October 2024. During this downtime, Mercer expects Northern Bleached Hardwood Kraft (NBHK) production at the facility to decline by approximately 45,000 tonnes.

Mercer has indicated that it maintains property and business interruption insurance for the Peace River mill, and it expects that the costs incurred from repairs and the resultant production halt will be covered by this insurance, subject to standard deductibles and limits.

Headquartered in Vancouver, Mercer International is a global leader in the forest products sector, operating in Germany, the United States, and Canada. The company boasts a consolidated annual production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of pulp, 960 million board feet of lumber, and 210 thousand cubic meters of cross-laminated timber, among other products.