Wellington, Jan 12 NZPA - A paper mill in the United States owned by Graeme Hart's Rank Group is temporarily shutting down one of its machines.

The Pine Bluff Commercial newspaper reported that the number one paper machine at the Pine Bluff mill owned by Evergreen Packaging is being shut down temporarily, but said details, including the impact on employees, were not known.

Rank Group, the investment company owned by Mr Hart, has built a global packaging business from a number of transactions, including the purchase of International Paper's Evergreen Packaging and the Swiss packaging company SIG.

The International Paper transaction included a mill at Pine Bluff in Arkansas -- similar in size to the Carter Holt Harvey Kinleith mill -- as well as other facilities scattered across the US, Canada and Asia.

Evergreen Packaging also absorbed the business of Blue Ridge Paper products purchased by Rank.

Rank Group rarely answers media queries. It owns four pulp and paper mills in New Zealand formerly owned by Carter Holt Harvey.

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