The last union-member shifts at Rayonier Advanced Materials’ (RYAM) Témiscaming, Québec, mill ended on the morning of October 4, 2026, according to an October 7 statement from Unifor. On October 7, Wood Business reported that production had stopped at the site’s paperboard plant. October 7 is the union and trade-publication date, not the date production ended. Pulp & Paper Canada had published the same reporter’s account on October 6; these two trade articles are not independent confirmations.
Status checked October 10, 2026 (KST). The union’s account of the last shifts, a trade outlet’s quotations of company and union statements, and RYAM’s earlier SEC filing cover different times and questions. The reviewed sources do not confirm a restart date, customer-specific deliveries or finished-goods availability.
This is not the first idling of the site’s HPC plant
RYAM’s second-quarter 2026 Form 10-Q, Note 2, says the high-purity cellulose (HPC) plant at Témiscaming was indefinitely idled in July 2024. In the first quarter of 2026, the company decided to permanently cease dissolving wood pulp (DWP) production there. Some HPC-plant infrastructure nevertheless continued to support energy and other requirements of the site’s paperboard (PBD) and high-yield pulp (HYP) plants. The filing said those PBD and HYP operations were continuing at full capacity, subject to market conditions, at the time covered by the report. The 10-Q reports the quarter ended June 27, 2026; it does not itself establish what happened in October.
Calling the October stoppage a newly closed HPC plant—or treating the 2024 HPC idling as the October event—would conflate separate operations. The Wood Business headline focuses on the paperboard plant, while its story describes a broader pause at the pulp-and-paper site. It quotes a company statement that the wastewater treatment plant and Boiler No. 4 remain operating during the production shutdown. “Production stopped” therefore does not mean every maintenance and environmental facility has shut down or that the complex has been dismantled.
Announced schedule versus actual production end
According to Unifor, the economic shutdown was first announced in late August, initially planned for mid-September and then postponed until early October. Its October 7 release says the last member shifts ended October 4 and about 300 workers were then off the job, while a small number remained for essential operations and upkeep. Wood Business reports that some 425 jobs are affected at the site. The figures have different attribution and apparent scopes: one describes workers currently off the job in the union’s release; the other is a trade report’s broader job-impact figure. They should not be added or recast as a single verified layoff count.
The trade account quotes RYAM as saying the duration is undetermined, and relays an October 4 union statement saying no startup date was planned. Neither a permanent closure nor a promised restart date follows from that. The outlet also attributes the business pressure to U.S. tariffs in its account of the company’s explanation; the reviewed material does not independently quantify the relative contributions of tariffs, demand and costs by product.
What paper-packaging buyers can establish
A stoppage at a paperboard mill is not proof that any particular converter’s purchase order has slipped. Confirm whether the buyer’s specific board or converted item actually originates at Témiscaming, then distinguish finished production, quality release, customer allocation and shipment. Do not collapse paperboard and high-yield pulp into a single undifferentiated “paper supply” shortage or price forecast.
| PO-level check | Ask the supplier for | Not established in public reporting |
|---|---|---|
| Producing asset | Actual site, product grade/specification, recent lot and mill identifier | Whether a given PO is exposed to Témiscaming |
| Cut-off stage | PO- and lot-linked production, inspection, warehouse-release and transport-booking records | Customer-level unfinished orders or delayed shipments |
| Available stock | Quality-released quantity, customer allocation and authorized dispatch date | Saleable inventory and allocation volumes |
| Alternate source | Producing site, comparable specifications, certification, sample/first-lot approval, firm quantity and ETA | Like-for-like grade availability elsewhere |
| Updates | Next written status time and confirmed delivery ETA | Restart date or customer-specific normalization |
“A site’s production is stopped” and “our PO cannot ship” are different claims. Tie item → producing operation → lot → allocated stock → transport evidence to the same order reference before revising a delivery commitment.
About the Author
PackingMaster: PaperPackLog editor covering paper-packaging markets, products and operating controls.
References
- Unifor, RYAM Témiscaming ends production (October 7, 2026)
- Wood Business, RYAM idles Témiscaming paperboard plant (October 7, 2026)
- Pulp & Paper Canada, earlier version by the same reporter (October 6, 2026)
- RYAM, SEC Form 10-Q, Note 2: Temiscaming Operations (filed August 5, 2026; quarter ended June 27)