Asia Pulp & Paper Co. (APP), one of the four largest producers of tissue paper in the world, has awarded Voith Paper an order to supply three 5.6 m wide tissue machines with operating speed of 2400 m/min to be installed in China.

In approximately 15 months, one of the new machines will be running. The other two will have their start-ups some months after the first. In addition to these three new machines, which will help APP reach its goal of becoming the world leader in the production of tissue paper, Voith provided, in the late 1990s, four 5.6 m machines and operating speed of up to 2200 m/min, the speed record at the time, to APP plants in China and Indonesia.

With its existing tissue capacity of 504,000 tons/yr in Indonesia, APP's total will reach 1.466 million tons/yr. As a result, it will surpass P&G's total of 1.373 million tons/yr. P&G is currently in fourth place in the global tissue rankings, according to the RISI World Tissue Capacity Report 2009.

APP will also cement its position as the leading tissue producer in Asia, with almost triple the capacity of the player in second place, Kimberly-Clark, at 495,000 tons/yr. APP's eight new PMs will represent around 10% of China's tissue capacity. The group has been keeping a low profile with its investments, as the news will send a shockwave through the country's tissue industry.

Consumption rising in China: According to the China National Household Paper Industry Association (CNHPIA), last year China's tissue capacity reached 4.4 million tons and consumption 3.9 million tons

Around 0.4 million tons of new capacity will be added to the market this year, taking the country's total to 4.8 million tons, said a spokeswoman for the association.

It predicts consumption will grow by 8- 10% this year, in line with China's strong economy. With expansions continuing apace, the spokeswoman is worried about possible overcapacity come next year.

However, the CNHPIA believes many small, integrated tissue plants will go out of business in the next few years, mainly due to increasingly stringent environmental standards and the government strengthening their enforcement. Such mills tend to use nonwood fibre, such as reed and straw, as furnish for their pulp.

Demand for such low quality tissue products is on the decline as living standards improve and the Chinese population rapidly urbanizes. Chinese consumers are becoming more concerned about the hygiene and quality of their tissue products.This item is based partly on news from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

Huizhou Fook Woo mulls over tissue expansion

Huizhou Fook Woo Paper is mulling over plans to install two 20,000 ton/yr tissue paper machines at its mill in Huizhou city, Guangzhou province, China, in the next two years. The move would be part of the company's efforts to replace the existing small, old tissue machines at the facility with larger ones.

A decision is expected after a new 20,000 ton/yr tissue PM and a 110 ton/day deinked pulp (DIP) line come on stream at the plant at the end of this month. The 2.85 m wide machine, an Advantage DCT 60 model from Metso Paper, which also supplied the DIP line, will have a design speed of 1300 m/min. An identical Metso PM was already commissioned at the site in May.

ABB to build new factory in Shanghai

On 16 December 2009, ABB announced that it will be transferring manufacturing of its web inspection systems, WIS HDI800, to a new factory in Shanghai, China. The new Shanghai facility, already under construction, is part of a previously announced transfer of ABB’s Quality Control systems business. The Web Inspection business is currently located in Helsinki, Finland, and is part of ABB’s Process Automation Division, Pulp and Paper Business Unit. Web Inspection Systems are used by the pulp and paper industry to inspect the surface of the paper as it is being produced. Web Inspection Systems can see and report many types of defects including holes, spots and streaks. Using patented neural classifiers, ABB adds intelligence to the system by letting papermakers know exactly what type of defects are occurring thus reducing rejects, saving fiber and reducing energy consumption. ABB, through its ULMA business, has been an industry pioneer in Web Inspection Systems for 40 years.

Organizationally, ABB operates a business unit dedicated to providing automation and electrification products specifically designed for Two companies to add new tissue capacity the pulp and paper industry. This investment is a continuation of ABB’s commitment to supply leading-edge technology to its pulp and paper customers.

According to Roger Bailey, global manager of ABB’s Pulp and Paper business, the decision to merge the Web Inspection factory into the new Quality Control systems factory in Shanghai was based on ABB’s continuing strategy to align its footprint with the market demand. “Given our significant investment in a new state of the art facility to manufacture Quality Control Systems, moving the Web Inspection business is a logical conclusion of that business decision.”