INDIA
GROUNDBREAKING FOR GREENFIELD PROJECT
On 19 March SCA and its Indian partner Godrej held a traditional Indian groundbreaking ceremony, a ‘Bhoomi Poojan’, for the new joint venture plant in Nashik, India. It was in March last year that SCA and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd – one of India’s fastest growing fast moving consumer products companies – formed a joint venture. The company will manufacture and market paperbased absorbent hygiene products, specifically sanitary towels and baby diapers, in India, Nepal and Bhutan. SCA and Godrej Consumer Products Limited will be equal partners incorporated as ‘Godrej SCA Hygiene Ltd’.

The land where the new plant is going to be built is 40,000 m² large and situated in the Sinnar Industrial area, close to the town of Nashik, about 200 km north east of Mumbai. Building activities are expected to start soon and the hiring of plant people has started.

“We expect the plant to be ready by October 2008 when we will start with the production of Libresse sanitary towels. The production of Libero and Snuggy diapers will start during next year,” says Klaas Schepers, technology director and responsible for the regional technology support.

To introduce the Libero brand to the Indian market, a launch campaign was made in November last year. It was supported by a humorous commercial called the ‘Laughing babies’ which was placed on .

The Snuggy diaper brand (bought by Godrej SCA Hygiene Ltd in the joint venture) was also re-launched in India in November. The brand was previously produced in China. It has recently been upgraded and is currently produced in SCA’s factory in Shah Alam in Malaysia.

On top of all this, the launch of SCA’s sanitary towel brand Libresse is ongoing and planned in this very moment.

CHINA
APP TISSUE EXPANSION ONGOING (News from RISI)
APP China has set up a subsidiary, Hainan Gold Hongye Paper, to operate a tissue plant at its Hainan complex. Four of the six tissue machines APP China has ordered from A Celli have come on line at the mill and the remaining two units are due to start up in mid-2008. Each of the six machines is 2.8 m wide, with a design speed of 1800 m/min and a capacity of 28,000 tons/yr.

In addition, Hainan Gold Hongye is erecting six 20,000 ton/yr tissue machines at the plant manufactured by another APP China subsidiary, Jin Shun, whose factory is located in Dagang, near Gold East’s Dagang mill. The spokesman said all six units are expected to come on line by the end of June. Jin Shun aims to supply another 12 such PMs to the plant by the end of 2009, if the first six run smoothly.

The BEK pulp line at the Hainan complex also feeds all the tissue machines there. Bleached softwood kraft pulp, which accounts for 20-30% of the fibre mix in the furnish, is sourced from the market.

TOSCOTEC TO DELIVER DRYERS TO ASIA
Toscotec reports that it has received a major order from an unnamed large pulp and paper group in Asia for the delivery of six steel yankee dryers.

These 12 ft steel yankee dryers will be installed on tissue machines located in Asia. The supply is scheduled to be completed within the following 12 months. With this order the total number of steel yankee dryers that Toscotec has actually in his backlog reaches 12 units.

METSO EXTENDS CHINA OPERATIONS
Metso has concluded an agreement to increase its ownership in the Chinese joint venture company Valmet-Xi'an Paper Machinery from 48.3% to 75% by acquiring all the shares owned by Finnfund and part of the shares owned by the other joint venture partner, China National Building Material Company Group. The agreement is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to be passed by year-end. As part of the arrangement, the joint venture acquires ownership of the real estate it currently operates.

It has also celebrated the extension of its Wuxi service centre. Located in Jiangsu Province about 100 km west of Shanghai, it provides advanced machinery maintenance and process development services to the Chinese pulp and paper industry.

With these developments, Metso extends and further strengthens its position as the leading supplier of machinery and technology to the Chinese pulp and paper industry.

The Valmet-Xi'an joint venture was established in 1989 with the original agreement spanning to the end of 2008. To date it has supplied more than 100 medium-size paper and board machines to the Chinese market, as well as certain machine structures for Metso's deliveries of medium-size and large machines to China and other countries. The joint venture employs 1,060 people. After the acquisition, Metso's total headcount in China will be 2,670.

Metso has been systematically strengthening its presence in the Chinese paper and board machinery market, currently the world's fastest growing. The total amount of Metso's 2006-2008 investments in China are about 100 million, a large majority of which relates to the paper and board machinery segment.