Abitibi-Consolidated first registered under CSA PLUS Chain of Custody Standard in Quebec A (TSX) ABY (NYSE) MONTREAL, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. (TSX: A; NYSE: ABY) today announced that its Quebec-West Woodlands Division and Champneuf Sawmill are the first in Quebec to be certified by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) under standard CSA PLUS 1163 - Chain of Custody for Forest Products Originating from a Defined Forest Area Registered to CAN/CSA-Z809. This standard is designed to chart the progress of fibre used by sawmills from its point-of-origin in forests that have been certified under the CSA's sustainable forest management standard. CSA PLUS 1163 certification is a voluntary process designed to assess the ability to manage a chain of custody system. The certification process requires that independent experts audit the Company's performance against a set of objective standards and procedures for chain of custody. The Quality Management Institute (QMI) conducted Abitibi-Consolidated's third party audits on the Quebec-West Woodlands Division and Champneuf Sawmill and recommended that the systems of the two operations be registered under CSA PLUS. "Abitibi-Consolidated is the first Company in Quebec to implement a chain of custody and to be audited by a third party," stated, Louis-Marie Bouchard Senior Vice-President, Woodlands & Sawmill Operations. "With this system successfully implemented and certified, the Company has demonstrated its proactive approach to meet the needs of customers who request assurances about the percentage of certified fibre used in our divisions." The goal of this initiative was to test and assess the applicability of standard CSA PLUS 1163 with a view to implementing it on a broader basis within the Company. The Quebec-West Woodlands Division also successfully passed a recent follow-up audit of its ISO 14001 certified environmental management system as well as its CSA certified sustainable forest management (SFM) system; a standard that was revised in 2002. It is one of the first in Canada to pass this review under this revised CSA SFM standard. "These results demonstrate that our forest management practices are sustainable for the long run; and Abitibi-Consolidated is proud of its continued industry leadership in achieving third-party certification," added Bouchard. Abitibi-Consolidated is a global leader in newsprint & uncoated groundwood (value-added groundwood) papers as well as a major producer of wood products, generating sales of CAN $5.4 billion in 2003. The Company owns or is a partner in 27 paper mills, 22 sawmills, 4 remanufacturing facilities and 1 engineered wood facility in Canada, the US, the UK, South Korea, China and Thailand. With over 15,000 employees, excluding its PanAsia joint venture, Abitibi-Consolidated does business in approximately 70 countries. Responsible for the forest management of 17.5 million hectares of woodlands, the Company is committed to the sustainability of the natural resources in its care. Abitibi-Consolidated is also the world's largest recycler of newspapers and magazines, serving 16 metropolitan areas in Canada and the United States and 130 local authorities in the United Kingdom, with 14 recycling centres and approaching 20,000 Paper Retriever(R) and paper bank containers. DATASOURCE: ABITIBI-CONSOLIDATED INC. CONTACT: Investors - Lorne Gorber, Manager, Investor Relations, (514) 394-2360, ; Media - Marc Osborne, Manager, Corporate Communications and Media Relations, (514) 394-2340,

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