Verso Corp. reports fourth quarter and year-end 2014 losses

Verso Corp. (NYSE:VRS) is reporting financial losses for both the fourth quarter and the year ended Dec. 31, 2014, citing as factors a 2.7% decrease in average sales price per ton and a 4.3% decline in total sales volume.

The Memphis-based company, which closed its Bucksport mill in December, laying off 500 workers, reported fourth quarter net sales of $326.4 million, a decrease of $24 million, or 6.9%, compared to the fourth net sales of 2013 of $350.4 million. The company also operates a paper mill in Jay.

Net sales for 2014 decreased 6.6% to $1,296.6 million from $1,388.9 million in 2013, due to a 3.9% decline in total sales volume, and a 2.9% decrease in the average sales price for all products in 2014 compared to 2013, the company reported.

"In the fourth quarter we experienced a seasonal slowdown in demand for coated papers as well as a continued decline in coated ground-wood prices," Verso President and CEO David Paterson said in the release accompanying the earnings report.

In late January, Verso Paper announced that it had completed a $60 million sale of its shuttered Bucksport mill to the subsidiary of Canadian scrap metal company American Iron & Metal.

The company also announced in January that it had completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of NewPage, which sold its mills in Rumford and Biron, Wis., as a result of a settlement with federal antitrust regulators. In its antitrust settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Verso agreed to have NewPage sell two mills for $62.4 million to Canada-based Catalyst Paper, which will maintain the Rumford mill's current employment levels and continue operations there.

Verso to lay off 300 at Jay mill