Albany International Corp., an Albany, N.Y.–based manufacturer of custom-designed paper machine fabrics and process belts used in the production of paper and paperboard, will close its forming fabric manufacturing facility in Montgomery, Ala., as a result of a shrinking customer base in North America and the need to balance paper machine clothing production capacity with expected demand.

The closure, which will affect 90 employees, will commence over the next few weeks. Manufacturing capacity will be transferred from the Montgomery facility to other Albany International sites in North America. The company expects to complete the transition by the end of August 2008.

Shuttering of the Montgomery facility follows the closure of dryer fabric manufacturing and press fabric manufacturing operations in New York, announced last August. Transition of those operations to other facilities in North America is expected to be complete by the end of this month.

January 8, 2008