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Posted by Greg
on 2/20/2009, 5:31 pm, in reply to "Re: E&LS Update"
69.217.56.134
Don:
Not here. Things have slowed up before, but the mill in Ontonagon always kept running. Consumer spending usually kept up in previous downturns, but this time it is collapsing. The mill in Ontonagon makes paper for cardboard boxes; when people aren't buying the demand for boxes drops. The mills in Wisconsin that receive pulpwood from the UP make coated paper used in magazines and catalogues and other paper products and demand has droppped immensely. Warehouses are full of paper they can't get rid of. Since paper and forest products are the majority of our traffic it has put the hurt on us. Nationwide rail traffic in paper products is down 30% from a year ago. Once Louisiana Pacific in Sagola quits getting in pulpwood Feb 25th for a month and the other shippers are under orders from the paper companies to slow down loading pulpwood we won't have much to do. Personally, the last time I was laid off was when I worked for the Missouri Pacific in the early 80's. The Carter grain embargoe on Russia and the recession caused me to be furloughed off and on.
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