Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill Restarts Operation

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - March 4, 2014) - Fortress Paper Ltd. ("Fortress Paper" or the "Company") (TSX:FTP) announced today that its Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill (the "FSC Mill") in Thurso, Québec restarted operations after taking market downtime of 10 weeks. The FSC Mill will be producing initially northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) pulp and expects to ramp-up to normalized production in approximately 15 days. In keeping with the Company's "swing mill" strategy, the FSC Mill will continue to operate by swinging production between both NBHK pulp and dissolving pulp to best respond to changing market conditions, particularly in light of the interim anti-dumping trade duty currently imposed by China's Ministry of Commerce.

Yvon Pelletier, President of Fortress Specialty Cellulose Inc., commented: "I am pleased with the initiatives completed at the FSC Mill during this recent downtime. As a result of these improvements, the FSC Mill should operate with greater efficiency and improved reliability over the coming year."

About Fortress Paper

Fortress Paper operates internationally in two distinct business segments: dissolving pulp and security paper products. The Company operates its dissolving pulp business at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill located in Canada, which has expanded into the renewable energy generation sector with the construction of a cogeneration facility and the production of NBHK pulp. The Company is also evaluating expanding its dissolving pulp capacity by converting the Fortress Global Cellulose Mill located at Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Québec into a dissolving pulp mill and re-starting the cogeneration facility. The Company operates its security paper products business at the Landqart Mill located in Switzerland, where it produces banknote, passport, visa and other brand protection and security papers, and at its high security production and research facility located in Canada, where it manufactures optically variable thin film material.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of Fortress Paper with respect to the timing for the ramp-up to normalized production and anticipated improvements to the FSC Mill's efficiency and reliability. The reader is cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which are difficult to predict and that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Assumptions underlying the Company's expectations regarding forward-looking statements contained in this news release include, among others: the ability of the Company to realize efficiency and reliability improvements from its cost reduction initiatives at the FSC Mill and that our equipment will operate at expected levels. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, that market conditions for dissolving pulp and NBHK pulp will remain unfavourable, that the interim duty imposed by China's Ministry of Commerce may increase, that the FSC Mill cost structure will not improve and that there will be unforeseen technical issues at the FSC Mill. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Fortress Paper does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.