SAVANNAH — Paper products giant International Paper is shuttering four southeast Georgia facilities, two of which are mills, including a nearly 90-year-old mill in Savannah described as a “cornerstone of the community.”
The closures will affect 1,100 hourly and salaried workers in Savannah and Riceboro, located about 45 minutes down the Georgia coast from Savannah in Liberty County. International Paper said Thursday the shutdowns will be completed by Sept. 30. A third area mill, located in the Savannah suburb of Port Wentworth, was sold to the industrial investment firm AIP.
The closings are also expected to affect the region’s timber farmers and loggers who supply the mills with pine trees. Georgia is America’s largest timber producer with more than 22 million acres of timberland, according to the Georgia Forestry Association, an industry group.
The shuttering plants make containerboard used for cardboard boxes and other packaging materials. International Paper is scaling back manufacturing of those products, targeting a 1 million ton reduction in annual containerboard capacity.
“We understand how deeply these decisions affect our employees, their loved ones, and the surrounding communities,” Tom Hamic, executive vice president and president of International Paper’s North America Packaging Solutions business, said in a statement Thursday. “We are committed to supporting both our employees and customers as we navigate this transition.”
The Savannah-area closures come on the heels of Georgia-Pacific, an International Paper rival, shuttering a containerboard plant in the southwestern corner of the state. Georgia-Pacific announced in May it would close its Cedar Springs facility, winding down operations by the end of July, dealing a significant blow to that area’s economy. That mill, in rural Early County near the Alabama border, employed roughly 535 workers.
More than 57,000 people work in Georgia in timber and timber products-related professions, according to a 2022 report from the Georgia Forestry Commission, a government entity. The sector generates about $25 billion in economic output and more than $4.4 billion in wages statewide, the report said.
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
The affected International Paper mills draw much of their timber from a 10-county area on the coast that is home to 1.7 million acres of privately owned timberlands, supporting more than 6,400 jobs in the region, according to the Georgia Forestry Association.
“What we’re seeing reflects an industry in transition rather than a simple trend line. The U.S. pulp and paper sector faces rising global competition, escalating costs and shifting demand. Investments in lumber, engineered wood, energy and innovative wood-based products are growing,” said Tim Lowrimore, the association’s CEO. “As the forest products sector evolves, we must move quickly to ensure Georgia maintains its position as one of the most productive wood baskets in the world.”
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, bemoaned the mill closings’ broader affect on the area’s timber industry. A fifth-generation tree farmer, Burns lives in Effingham County near the Savannah and Port Wentworth mills.
“I understand firsthand the challenges of facing changing markets and economic instability,” Burns said. “These mill closures will undoubtedly deal a devastating blow not only to Georgia’s timber industry, but to the economic fabric of the entire southeast Georgia region.”
Word of the International Paper shutdowns, which include two packing and shipping facilities, sent shock waves across the Savannah area. The Savannah mill, on the Savannah River just upstream from the historic downtown, has operated since 1936 and at its peak in the 1950s employed 5,000 workers.
Along with a sugar refinery that opened in 1917, the Savannah paper mill established the coastal city as a manufacturing hub before Gulfstream opened its aircraft factory in 1967 and the Georgia Ports Authority became one of America’s busiest trading centers.
The Savannah mill has employed generations of many local families. Employees contacted Thursday about the plant’s closure declined comment, citing severance agreements that limit what they can say publicly.
For Savannahians who consider the mills part of the city’s economic identity, the closures will mark the end of an era. Trip Tollison of the Savannah Economic Development Authority called the plants a “cornerstone of the community” and said Thursday was a “terribly sad day.”
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson agreed.
“I am devastated to learn of the sudden and permanent closure of International Paper after all these years in Savannah,” said Johnson, who’s lived in the city for more than 30 years and has family members who have called the city home for several decades longer. “My greatest concern is for the 650 valued employees and their families whose lives are directly impacted by this decision, especially during these challenging economic times.”
Nationally, there have been recent signs that the economy is softening, with weaker jobs and growth numbers. Inflation is also stoking concerns.
Those left jobless by the closures in southeast Georgia, though, will enter a labor market in need of workers. Savannah’s unemployment rate stood at 3.1% in July, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.
The 300 or so workers at the Riceboro plant will also be looking for jobs at a time of strong economic growth in their region. The unemployment rate for the Hinesville metro area, which includes Liberty County and neighboring Long County, is 4.1%, down from a year earlier.
Manufacturing is surging within an hour’s drive of Riceboro and Savannah thanks to the recent opening of Hyundai Motor’s giant electric vehicle manufacturing plant and new factories operated by Hyundai suppliers. Those employers have pledged to grow their combined workforces to more than 15,000 by 2031, with more than half those jobs still to be created.
Liberty County community leaders weren’t as surprised by the Riceboro mill’s closure as Savannah officials were about their plants’ shutdowns. The Riceboro facility is a recent addition to International Paper’s portfolio, acquired as part of a larger deal to buy UK-based DS Smith. That $7 billion agreement closed in January.
Georgia House Rep. Al Williams, who chairs the county’s economic development authority, said local officials had been working with International Paper to keep the Riceboro mill open, offering incentives for investment. The Riceboro mill’s economic impact was estimated at $290 million for 2023 in a report from Georgia Power Economic Development.
Williams lives about 10 miles from the Riceboro mill and said the development authority had been “hoping for a different outcome.”
He added, “We have faced hardship before and come through it by pulling together. We will do so again with urgency, compassion and a clear focus on helping every affected family land on their feet.”
International Paper has made several moves to consolidate operations with those of newly acquired DS Smith, a UK-based paper manufacturer. Other “operational synergies” made since the deal closed on Jan. 31 include shuttering facilities in Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Mexico.
International Paper reported a $75 million profit on $6.8 billion in sales in 2025’s second quarter, which stretched from April through June. Those earnings followed a $105 million loss in the year’s first three months.
International Paper did not disclose its future plans for the mill sites. The Savannah mill sits on 450 acres along the waterfront near the nation’s fastest-growing cargo container processors, the Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City Terminal.
The Riceboro site is just minutes from I-95 in an area popular with the wood and pulp industry because of the ample timberlands nearby. About 20 other forest product manufacturing facilities operate in adjacent counties and make pulp and paper, lumber, engineered wood and wood pellets.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that the mill in Port Wentworth is being sold.
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