Smurfit Stone Container Corporation has confirmed that it intends to discontinue container-board mill and market pulp manufacturing operations at four US mills and one Canadian mill. The facilities produce approximately 1.1 million tons of container-board and 325,000 tons of market pulp annually.

The corporation expects the re-structuring to generate annual cost savings of approximately $350 million (£236.5 million), prior to any asset sell-offs. The majority of those cost savings are expected to be achieved within the next 24 months.

Following the restructuring, Smurfit Stone will reduce its annual US liner-board capacity at wholly-owned mills from approximately 4.8 million tons to 4.1 million tons and its US medium capacity from 1.7 million tons to 1.3 million tons.