Another setback for Fibre Excellence. The Saint-Gaudens paper mill in the Haute-Garonne region of France will suspend pulp production for two weeks, from March 16 to 30, 2026. The paper group's management indicates that the level of wood stock no longer enables it to maintain industrial activity under normal conditions.
This decision, which comes after a five-week suspension of production last October due to the drop in activity on the European pulp market, is due to persistent tensions on the industrial wood market, with supply difficulties exacerbated by recent bad weather in south-west France.
The shutdown period will be used for maintenance operations, cleaning work and training sessions for teams. However, certain activities will continue on site. Timber supply services, shipping and the city's wastewater treatment plant will continue to operate.
This latest shutdown comes at a time of uncertainty for Fibre Excellence's two French paper mills. The Saint-Gaudens and Tarascon sites in the Bouches-du-RhÃ'ne region of France employ around 670 people and have an annual capacity of around 550,000 tonnes of paper pulp, used for graphic papers, sanitary products and some packaging.
Earlier this year, the group's French management warned of the deterioration of its business model, citing rising wood prices and electricity buy-back conditions deemed insufficient to cover production costs.
Faced with these difficulties, the French Ministry of Industry has said it is ready to mobilize 150 million euros to support the two sites . However, the government's support is conditional on a financial commitment from shareholder Jackson Wijaya. In the absence of such a commitment, the government indicates that a search for a buyer could be envisaged.
On February 20, Fibre Excellence stated that these discussions represented an important step towards securing the business, but that further discussions were required "to find concrete solutions" on electricity tariffs and "securing supplies of French wood" points "structuring for the "in the short and long term". This production stoppage for lack of wood is a perfect illustration of the latter point.
