A fire has halted production on one of the four paper machines at the St Regis Paper Company's Kemsley Mill, part of DS Smith Group.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) sent more than 100 firefighters to tackle the blaze, which is believed to have been started by a mechanical failure on the PM4 paper machine.
Production on PM4 is expected to resume within "a few weeks".
A St Regis spokesman said the company had enough stock to meet customer demand in the short term and could call on the support of a network of mills if required.
Meanwhile, production was momentarily halted on the mill's PM3 paper machine, which is located next to PM4.
It is expected to resume production shortly following safety checks, while the mill's two other paper machines were unaffected.
Firefighters arrived at the Kemsley Mill in Sittingbourne just after 8pm on Sunday 20 April and had contained the fire by 11pm that night.
Steve Jeffries, KFRS's area manager, said fire crews limited the damage to the machine itself and saved three quarters of the roof.
None of the mill's 580 staff were hurt in the fire.
St Regis Paper Company is owned by DS Smith, which acquired M-Real's New Thames paper mill, located on the same Kemsley site, in February.
DS Smith announced that it would invest £37m in converting production at New Thames from uncoated fine paper to lightweight corrugated case material.
A DS Smith spokesman said the blaze had not impacted on New Thames and its scheduled reopening date of January 2009.
Source: packagingnews
Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) sent more than 100 firefighters to tackle the blaze, which is believed to have been started by a mechanical failure on the PM4 paper machine.
Production on PM4 is expected to resume within "a few weeks".
A St Regis spokesman said the company had enough stock to meet customer demand in the short term and could call on the support of a network of mills if required.
Meanwhile, production was momentarily halted on the mill's PM3 paper machine, which is located next to PM4.
It is expected to resume production shortly following safety checks, while the mill's two other paper machines were unaffected.
Firefighters arrived at the Kemsley Mill in Sittingbourne just after 8pm on Sunday 20 April and had contained the fire by 11pm that night.
Steve Jeffries, KFRS's area manager, said fire crews limited the damage to the machine itself and saved three quarters of the roof.
None of the mill's 580 staff were hurt in the fire.
St Regis Paper Company is owned by DS Smith, which acquired M-Real's New Thames paper mill, located on the same Kemsley site, in February.
DS Smith announced that it would invest £37m in converting production at New Thames from uncoated fine paper to lightweight corrugated case material.
A DS Smith spokesman said the blaze had not impacted on New Thames and its scheduled reopening date of January 2009.
Source: packagingnews
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