JAY – Verso Paper is analyzing its market and its production to figure out the company’s next move in the global economic recession.

A decision has not been made on what will happen next, but it is “highly likely” that there will be additional downtime at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay and the Bucksport Mill in Bucksport, company spokesman Bill Cohen said Monday.

If there is downtime, it isn’t known how long it will last, he said.

The company already has shifted production of paper at the Androscoggin Mill on one paper machine to make softwood pulp for the Bucksport Mill. The machine that usually makes pulp for Bucksport is making hardwood pulp for the Jay mill. That move is expected to save the company money as the pulp will be stored for later use and the company will not have to buy pulp during maintenance periods.

That production shift is ongoing for the last two weeks of February and the last two weeks of March.

A paper machine at the Bucksport Mill has been idle since November 2008.

“We’re going through a period of analysis,” Cohen said.

In the meantime, the Androscoggin Mill is in a transition process to a new manager, Marc Connor, who is the manager of Verso’s Sartell Mill in Minnesota, he said.

Dick Jackson, the Androscoggin Mill manager, is going to work at the corporate level and focus on reliability, Cohen said.