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Quebec-based forestry company Tembec is permanently shutting down its newsprint mill in Pine Falls, affecting about 230 jobs.

The mill had been indefinitely idled due to a labour dispute that began Sept. 1, 2009 and Tembec said Thursday that attempts since early this year to sell the business had failed.

The company said the mill had high costs and faced a declining newsprint market so it could not continue operating.

Tembec plans to take an $8-million charge on its books for the summer closure to reflect the financial impact of the closure.

"Although not an easy decision to make, the structural decline of the newsprint market and the cost structure of the mill prompted such a decision," Chris Black, Tembec's executive vice-president for paper operations, said in a release.

"The company intends to act in a manner that will ensure that employees receive their severance pay in accordance with the collective agreement."

Tembec is a large, diversified and integrated forest products company which operates in North America and France. The company has annual sales of about $2 billion and 6,000 employees and produces, pulp, newsprint, lumber, paper, wood flooring and chemicals.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/tembec-closing-pine-falls-mill-permanently-102134699.html