Domtar Corporation Ashdown Mill Boasts $1.9B Industry Impact

The Arkansas timber industry can add another company to its growing list of global expansions in the state. Domtar Corporation completed a major expansion of its manufacturing mill with the startup of a newly converted fluff-pulp operation in Ashdown, Arkansas. The company is a leading provider of a wide variety of fiber-based products including communication, specialty and packaging papers, market pulp and absorbent hygiene products. This conversion – the largest capital project in the company’s history – makes Domtar the third-largest, fluff-pulp producer in the world. 

Domtar’s Ashdown Mill not only has a significant impact on the timber and forest products industry in Arkansas, but across the region as well. The operation has an estimated regional economic impact of $1.9 billion and supports 955 local jobs, making it the largest employer in Little River County. 

While the most visible work at Ashdown was the transformation of equipment, the work happening inside the training area was equal in importance. “The operating crews underwent two months of extensive classroom training and were well prepared for startup when they brought the new state-of-the-art machine on-line,” said Troy Wilson, paper and fluff-pulp production manager.

The mill is one of Domtar’s 13 pulp and paper mills in North America. With three pulp lines and three paper machines, the mill has an annual paper production capacity of 680,000 tons and an annual pulp production capacity of 700,000 tons.

The foundation of Domtar Corporation’s business is a network of world-class wood fiber converting assets that produce papergrade, fluff and specialty pulps. With approximately 10,000 employees serving more than 50 countries around the world, Domtar is driven by a commitment to turn sustainable wood fiber into useful products that people rely on every day.

History of the Ashdown Mill
Located in southwest Arkansas between the Little River and the Red River, the Ashdown Mill in one of the largest fully integrated, low-cost business and commercial printing paper mills in North America. This location in the heart of the Arkansas “wood basket” proved to be ideal for industry, and the abundance of timber brought manufacturing plants to the city by the 1950s. From its opening in 1968, the Ashdown Mill has steadily grown in size to become one of the largest paper producing facilities in the world. 

The mill serves major markets across the southern, central and western United States, and its strategic location is near major interstate highways, railroads and navigable rivers for product transportation.