Employees with ND Paper’s mill in Rumford leave a meeting Monday afternoon with CEO Ken Liu at Mountain Valley High School. Two private sessions were held for workers to ask questions about the mill and the current state of business. Liu said after the meetings that the mill is facing challenges but he is confident they can be overcome. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — The CEO of Nine Dragons Paper in Rumford held private meetings with employees Monday afternoon, saying afterward that the mill is facing challenges but he is confident they can be overcome.

Employees were invited to two sessions at Muskie Auditorium in Mountain Valley High School to ask questions about the mill and the current state of business.

“We are growing in the right product mix, working on right product efficiency measures as well,” Ken Liu said after the meetings. “I’m confident, that with all this combined together, we can be a very successful mill. Challenges do remain, but life is not without challenges. I’m ready to tackle those challenges and I know our workforce is as well. We have an excellent workforce that I’m exceptionally proud of.”

He said, “Whether it’s our corporate team, our team members from abroad, all combined together, I think this is right team that’s working together to make the mill successful. Every day we’re doing cool things, new things. So I think it’s an everyday journey.”

Asked about the difficulty of accomplished machine operators retiring over the last few years, Liu said, “It’s all a part of running this business. There’s a lot of retirements, but there’s also a lot of new team members that are learning how to do things the same way, or different or better. It’s part of the circle of running a mill.”

Regarding the future of the mill here, he said, “Whether it’s myself, our leadership team, our corporation, we’re all spending a lot of time here because we believe this mill can be successful. There are difficult challenges ahead of us, but that’s every industry because there’s always difficulties and challenges. But challenges are meant to be overcome. I’m confident we can overcome them.”

ND Paper laid off up to 65 workers in March due to changes in paper production. The company announced it needed to temporarily shut down to convert a paper machine from producing packaging paper to bleached liner board and pulp in order to adjust to consumer demand due to a decline in the brown paper market.

At the time, there were about 530 full-time employees at the Rumford Mill.

In 2018, shortly after China’s National Sword campaign took effect, Nine Dragons purchased mills in Biron, Wisconsin, Rumford, and Old Town. At the time, the mills specialized in producing paper products from virgin pulp. But after buying them, ND Paper invested hundreds of millions of dollars so those mills could recycle post-consumer fiber, including old corrugated cardboard and mixed paper.

Also in 2018, Nine Dragons acquired a Fairmont, West Virginia mill, which produces recycled pulp for use in various products. ND Paper also owns a plant in Sturtevant, Wisconsin where paper is converted into corrugated boxes and other finished products.