A $1 billion investment will transform an Upper Peninsula paper mill and retain over 1,200 jobs and securing this is Michigan’s 108th District State Representative Dave Prestin and Representative Greg Markkanen. Billerud, a Swedish paper and pulp manufacturer will be upgrading the Escanaba Mill from producing paper to making an advanced paper product known as paperboard or cartonboard. Prestin says, “it’s an option or a replacement to traditional plastic packaging.”
Prestin says, “this is a great example of private – public partnerships really should be about.”
The mill, sitting on the banks of the Escanaba River, has been making paper since 1911. It’s one of the top employers in the Upper Peninsula’s Delta County, where it has an estimated $360 million annual economic impact on the area. Without Billerud’s investment, the mill would likely have closed. The state economic board estimates a shuttered mill would cost the region $3.6 billion over a 10-year period.
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