RUMFORD – NewPage Corp. announced Friday that it will cut paper production by more than 3.3 percent in the first quarter of this year to balance market demand with its inventory.

Local mill spokesman Tony Lyons said Friday evening that possible effects on the Rumford mill, which employs about 1,000 workers, will not be made public.

“We’re in a very competitive environment,” he said.

NewPage owns other mills in Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Nova Scotia, Canada. Its headquarters are in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Company spokesman Shawn Hall said Friday that NewPage will not give specifics about the number of employees who may be laid off.

“Specific operating and curtailment plans as well as timing will be developed across the NewPage mills to best satisfy customer commitments,” the company said in a statement.

Matt Bean, president of Local 900 union at the Rumford mill, said Friday night that he had not learned of the production slowdown, but he believed layoffs would not occur until later in the month, according to the last meeting he attended with local mill management.

Bean had said Thursday that he expects a temporary shutdown of the long log, ground wood, and pulp dryer, also known as the No. 9 machine, although he is not sure when.

More than 200 employees from the ground wood, long log, maintenance and pulp dryer departments returned to work Jan. 2 after a nearly four-week layoff.

NewPage said Friday it will cut production by 150,000 tons systemwide in the first quarter. Its mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 4.5 million tons of paper, including approximately 3.3 million tons of coated paper, approximately 900,000 tons of uncoated paper and approximately 300,000 tons of specialty paper, according to its Web site.

It is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with $4.7 billion in net sales for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007, the Web site says.

NewPage president and chief operating officer Rick Willett said in the statement, “We will maintain our strong commitment to run our operations in the most efficient way possible as we balance our production to consumption. Based on our estimates of market demand and inventory levels, this downtime is needed to help maintain that balance.”