RUMFORD — Third quarter financial results for NewPage Corp. show an improvement over the same quarter last year.

The Miamisburg, Ohio-based paper company released figures Thursday that show sales are up, prices down slightly, and an increase in gross margin to 6.2 percent over last year’s 0.8 percent.

Net losses were down during the third quarter of 2010 compared to the corresponding 2009 quarter, from $138 million to $67 million.

Matt Bean, president of Local 900 for the Rumford mill, said orders continue to steadily come in, everyone is working, and about 24 new people have been hired this year.

“We’re certainly glad things are looking better,” he said Thursday afternoon.

About 900 people are employed by the local NewPage mill.

According to the third quarter financial release, sales jumped from 769,000 tons in the third quarter of 2009, to 939,000 tons this year.

The number of tons sold also increased for each of the quarters during this year. For the first quarter ending on March 31, 2010, that number was 792,000 tons; for the second quarter ending on June 30, 2010, sales were 868,000 tons, and for the quarter ending on Sept. 30, 939,000 tons.

Prices dipped from $886 per ton to $875 during the 2009 and 2010 third quarters. Total volume also rose during the third quarter of 2010 to 1,122,000 tons from 966,000 tons in 2009.

While prices declined for the third quarters of 2009 and 2010, they rose from $852 per ton from the previous quarter.

Also figuring prominently in the third quarter report for this year is the number of market-related downtime as measured in tons. During the third quarter of 2009, mills systemwide took 101,000 tons downtime, compared with none for this quarter.

Janet Hall, spokeswoman for the Rumford mill, declined to comment on the financial report. And spokeswoman Amber Garwood, based in the Ohio office, did not return calls.

Prices per ton may rise during the fourth quarter of this year because of a U.S. International Trade Commission decision in September that extended tariffs on Chinese and Indonesian paper that enters the United States. That decision found that material injury has been caused to U.S. paper producers of coated paper and cleared the way for imposing antidumping and counterveiling duties on such imports.

According to a news release issued Oct. 22, the International Trade Commission determined that imports from China and Indonesia had been dumped and subsidized by significant margins.

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