OVERSEAS competition and soaring gas prices have been blamed for the closure of a Kent paper mill with the loss of 150 jobs.

Smurfit Kappa Paper UK, formerly known as Townsend Hook, is shutting its coated paper mill and conversion operations in Snodland.

The decision is another hammer blow to Kent’s once mighty paper industry and its manufacturing base.

However, the company is maintaining its packaging operations which employ 160 people.

In a statement, the company said that for the past six years, cost reductions and new products had enabled the mill to stay in production.

"However, increasingly over the last year, the mill has struggled to compete with cheap Far East imports, whilst at the same time having to absorb steep cost increases in raw materials such as pulp and chemicals, and the tripling of gas prices."

The company added: "This squeeze between selling prices and manufacturing costs has led to a position of unsustainable losses and hence the decision to close."

Talks have begun between bosses, employees and trade union representatives.