CHINA
Fook Woo starts up Metso tissue machine


The Metso-supplied Advantage DCT 60 tissue machine to the Fook Woo Group of Hong Kong and China came on stream successfully in Huizhou, Guangdong province, China, as planned on 25 May 2009. The machine is the first of two Advantage DCT 60 machines to be supplied by Metso to the Fook Woo Group.

Metso’s scope of delivery comprises two complete Advantage DCT 60 tissue machines including OptiFlo II TIS headbox, Metso yankee cylinder, Advantage AirCap hood, ValReel reel, mechanical drives, controls and basic mill engineering. Metso has also provided supervision and training for the operations.

The 2.85-m-wide Advantage DCT 60 tissue machines have a design speed of 1300 m/min. The capacity of each line using recycled fibre will be 20,000 tons/yr of tissue paper for facial, toilet, napkin and towel products.

The Advantage DCT 60 tissue machines use steam for the complete drying. Steam is more readily available and a low cost source of energy at many places in China.

The second of the Metso Advantage DCT 60 tissue machines to Fook Woo is scheduled to start up during the third quarter of this year together with a Metso supplied DIP line to furnish both machines. Founded in 1968, Fook Woo Group is the leading recycling service provider in Hong Kong.

The Group operates one of the biggest waste paper sorting centres and a paper mill in Huizhou, Guangdong, China. The company is the largest manufacturer of tissue from 100% recycled fibre in China.

Shandong Chenming to add three PMs

Shandong Chenming Paper Holdings is to branch out into the tissue paper sector. The company has ordered a machine from A Celli for its Shouguang facility. The unit will have a width of 5.6 m, a speed of 2000 m/min and a capacity of approximately 60,000 tons/yr. The cost and start-up date are not yet available. The new tissue machine will come as the final part of an investment in three paper machines and a pulp mill in China, spanning fine paper, tissue and linerboard. The company will establish a new subsidiary, Shouguang Meilun Paper, to carry out two of the projects. News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

IRAQ
Ministry to restart Basrah tissue mill

Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Minerals (MIM) has thus far failed to find a taker for the rehabilitation and use of the publicly owned paper mills in Missan and Basrah, in the south of the country. However, the ministry plans to restart a PM at one of the shuttered mills. Basrah's PM5, a 17 ton/day tissue unit, will be brought back on line in the middle of next year. Some 125 employees will be re-employed following the restart. A spokesman from the State Company for Paper Industries confirmed the organization lacked the funds to fix and restart the other production units for the moment.

Tenders still open: The ministry is still looking for investors for both mills under the terms of the tenders it issued about a year ago. They are invited to rehabilitate the plants and employ their personnel over a period of time to be agreed upon with the MIM, in return for a share in its production.

The Missan mill requires an estimated refurbishment budget of up to $65 million to bring it up to 90% of its design capacity. The facility contains a sack kraft paper machine, a board machine and an egg tray machine.

The Basrah mill is in need of refurbishment due to difficulties in securing effective maintenance and spare parts since 1980, when a war between Iraq and Iran broke out. The introduction of international economic sanctions against Iraq in 1990 exacerbated the problem, drastically cutting into the mill's capacity. The MIM estimates that the cost of the rehabilitation would be some $35 million, and that it would take up to two years to complete.

The Basrah site contains five paper machines, a pulp line and a corrugator. The plant's overall paper capacity has previously been estimated at about 72,800 tons/yr, but the MIM puts it at 43,550 tons/yr. News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

MIDDLE EAST
Indevco achieves forestry certifications

Indevco's two tissue mills in the Middle East have been awarded Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) chain of custody certifications for manufacturing and distributing tissue paper reels.

In May 2009, BMA Trada granted the certifications to Unipak Tissue Mill (UTM) in Halat, Lebanon, and Interstate Paper Industries (IPI) in Sadat City, Egypt, after approving their systems in March 2009.

Unipak Tissue Mill and Interstate Paper Industries are members of Indevco Paper Making, a division of Indevco Group. They make a total of 80,000 tons/yr of 100% recycled, partially-recycled, as well as virgin parent tissue reels for the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Unipak Tissue Mill recycles pre- and postconsumer paper, minimizes the quantity of fresh water used per ton and manages an efficient effluent treatment plant, the company says in its on-line newsletter. Interstate Paper Industries expects to purchase about 30,000 tons/yr of wastepaper from the local Egyptian market, about onethird of the country's annual waste paper collection. IPI consumes less power and water than international best practices and purchased fossil fuel-efficient equipment to reduce air emissions. All waste water from the plant is re-used, while net solid waste is either recycled or collected by a licensed contractor for disposal in Sadat City's landfill.