Headquarters Thunder Bay, Canada | ||
Bowater Forest Products is an AbitibiBowater owned paper mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It began as Great Lakes Forest Products in 1898. Investments by American entrepreneurs from Chicago and Minneapolis created one of the largest paper mills in the world on the northern shore of the Kaministiquia River. The mill was built just outside city limits of Fort William to take advantage of the lower rural tax rates, but still allow usage of urban manufacturing labour.
By the early 1970s Bowater Forest Products had become the world's largest paper mill, and employed over 4,000 people. But within 10 years mechanisation processes imported from Finland began to drastically reduce the workforce necessary to operate the mill. Today, the mill produces 234,000 metric tonnes of newsprint, 330,000 metric tonnes of market pulp and 85,000 metric tonnes of specialty paper. As of 2006, it employs approximately 1,460 people.