The publicly traded Resolute Forest Products Inc., which has plans for a sawmill near Atikokan, Ontario, and at least for now has shuttered its Fort Frances’ mills, reported a net loss of $2 million for the year ending Dec. 31 but still did $4.5 billion in sales.
The previous year, the Montreal-based international corporation reported a $41 million net income a year ago with sales totaling $4.8 billion, according to a news release.
Earlier this month, Resolute announced it was working with First Nations to develop its estimated $50 million sawmill, which will actually be located someplace near Atikokan with construction expected to begin this spring and eventually employ about 90 people, not including construction workers.
In the statements, the company said it also is working to find a way to reopen its pulp mill across the Rainy River that has been idle since November. About 240 people were put out of work as part of what was described as a larger restructuring plan. The company’s previously said the lumber industry still is rebounding after a downturn.
Excluding $81 million devoted to “special items,” Resolute’s net income for 2012 was $79 million, according to the release issued on Tuesday. That includes $70 million in fourth-quarter special items with a fourth-quarter net income of $34 million.
“We significantly improved the company’s competitiveness by optimizing our asset base, reducing costs wherever possible and strengthening our financial position this year,” said Richard Garneau, Resolute president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “We added pulp assets, committed to growth projects in lumber, invested in power cogeneration plants and further optimized our paper assets, steps that will position us well for the future.
“At the same time, we returned $67 million to our shareholders in share buybacks, reduced balance sheet working capital by a further $81 million from the end of 2011 and redeemed an additional $85 million of debt,” he said.
Resolute also experienced a $134 million increase in closure costs, “impairment and other related charges, and $173 million of lower volume, in both cases because of additional market downtime and the Company’s ongoing efforts to focus production in its most cost-effective mills and drive better efficiency by restructuring and reducing labor costs,” according to Resolute’s statement.
Resolute’s products include newsprint, commercial printing papers, market pulp and wood products. It owns or operates more than 40 pulp and paper mills and other facilities in the United States, Canada and South Korea as well as power-generation assets.
