PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s parent company has met a multimillion-dollar interest payment to its creditors after steps were taken to access $5 million from a lender, a company official said Friday.
“While our team is working diligently with our independent accounting firm to complete the audit process, this amendment to our loan agreement allows us to make the $7.5 million interest payment on April 17,” said Timothy Leybold, PT Holdings Company Inc. chief financial officer, in a prepared statement on Friday.
“We are entering the strong seasonal period of our corrugated box business, and with recent favorable pricing trends in our industry, this additional temporary availability under our [lender] should be sufficient to meet our near-term cash requirements.”
Leybold said seasonal business in the company’s major western Canada market — where it owns box-making plants — has been slowed by a wet, dark winter affecting hothouse fruit and vegetable production in that region.
“Seasonal business in our western Canadian markets has been slower than originally anticipated,” he said, adding that he expects a turnaround with warmer spring weather.
Much of the company’s cardboard sales is dependent on hothouse fruit and vegetable operations needing boxes for packing, he said.
The meat-packing industry also uses boxes produced with the kraft paper made at Port Townsend Paper.