Asia
CHINA
APP China pushing tissue growth even further; orders more machines
APP China is forging ahead with tissue paper expansions in China, ordering six large machines from A Celli and looking at awarding the Italian supplier contracts for two more similar units.
The six tissue PMs, each having a width of 5.6m, a design speed of 2,400 m/min and a capacity of 60,000 tpy, will be erected at the firm’s complex in Haikou city on the island of Hainan.
An APP China executive said that three out of the six units are scheduled to come on stream in 2012, with the first PM starting up in August. The remaining three will come online in 2013. He indicated that the civil engineering work for the schemes has begun at the facility. According to A Celli, installation work for such a PM usually takes at least six months to complete.
All the machines will be integrated with the mill’s sole bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp line, which has a stated capacity of 1.35m tpy.
The APP China contact pointed out the cost advantage generated from the integration is an edge in China, where most tissue producers rely on market pulp to feed their machines. He said the BHK line is producing pulp at a daily rate of 4,200 tonnes, or 1.5m tpy, following several overhauls that have been carried out in the past few years.
Outlook for tissue still good:
The source acknowledged that China’s economy is slowing amid a global downturn, which has hit most paper and board industries. But demand for high-quality tissue products will remain on an upward trajectory bolstered by improving living standards and rapid urbanisation, he added.
The demand growth comes mainly from the country’s inland cities and vast countryside, where low-quality tissue products made from a mix of nonwood and wood fibre dominate the market.
The rosy outlook for the sector has prompted APP China to invest further in tissue expansions. Besides the six machines for the Hainan complex, the firm is in talks with A Celli to supply another two 5.6 m-wide PMs; one to be installed at a greenfield mill in Suining city, Sichuan province, and the other at its existing mill in Suzhou city, Jiangsu province. Startup of the two units is slated for 2013.
‘Demand for high-quality tissue products will remain on an upward trajectory bolstered by improving living standards and rapid urbanisation’
Five large PMs coming online:
The above-mentioned eight PMs are part of APP China’s continuous expansion, which has already seen one 5.6 m-wide tissue unit, PM 9, come onstream at the Suzhou plant earlier this year.
Another three similar machines are coming online in the next few months. Two more machines are scheduled to be commissioned before mid-2012.
PM 9 was supplied by A Celli, which also provided another two units coming online this year; one for a greenfield plant in Xinmin city, Liaoning province, and another for a new facility in Xiaogan city, Hubei province.
It also holds the orders for two PMs that will start up during the first half of next year, one at the new Xinmin mill and another at the new Xiaogan site.
Voith Paper is supplying PM 11, also a 5.6 m-wide machine with a design speed of 2,400 m/min, for the Suzhou plant. The unit is set to start trial runs by early November.
PM 11 and another two machines that came on stream last year were previously planned to start up in September.
But all three units’ startup hit a delay due to a labour shortage and to the surging costs of labour and raw materials, said the APP China executive.
He added that labour costs have more than doubled from where they were two years ago when the projects were planned, and the labour shortage is still severe. He expected the situation to get more extreme over the next few years. News from RISI (www.risiinfo.com)
Tissue PM drying cylinder explosion at Nanning Phoenix injures one in China
A blast on a tissue paper unit’s iron drying cylinder slightly injured one worker at Nanning Phoenix Pulp & Paper in China.
The accident happened on a Kawanoe Zoki unit the night of November 12 at the firm’s mill in Nanning city, Guangxi autonomous region. According to a source from the firm, the Japanese supplier has sent people to the mill, and an investigation is still underway.
The machine is a recent purchase, having started up in 2008. However, Kawanoe Zoki refused to comment on the accident.
It is estimated the machine will take at least eight or nine months to restart.
An industry insider also reported that Italian company Toscotec, rather than Kawanoe Zoki, is being tapped to supply a new steel drying cylinder.
The 20,000 tpy PM has a trim width of 3.4 m and a design speed of 1,000 m/min. The mill also houses 12 other tissue paper machines, including a 12,000 tpy Kawanoe Zoki PM and then 11 units from domestic suppliers with a combined capacity of around 13,000 tpy. News from RISI (www.risiinfo.com)
Nanning Phoenix to delay startup of 30,000 tpy tissue paper unit
China’s Nanning Phoenix Pulp & Paper plans to push back the startup date of a 30,000 tpy tissue paper unit at its mill in Nanning city, Guangxi autonomous region, to April.
The machine was initially scheduled to be fired up by mid-2011, but civil engineering work got hit by a delay, according to a contact for the company.
The unit, supplied by Andritz, has a trim width of 3.65m, and a design speed of 2,000 m/min.
The scope of the supply contract included a stock preparation plant, a headbox, a hood and a steel yankee drying cylinder.
A mixture of bleached softwood and hardwood kraft (BSK and BHK) pulp will be used to feed the unit.
The BSK pulp will come from the firm’s own 150,000 tpy fibre line, and BHK pulp is expected to be sourced from the local market. Jumbo rolls will be converted on-site into end products.
The mill already houses 13 tissue paper machines with a total capacity of 45,000 tpy, including two from Kawanoe Zoki and 11 from unknown domestic suppliers. News from RISI (www.risiinfo.com)
IRAN
Zarrin Barge Persia boosts facial tissue output with $300m investment
Iranian tissue producer Zarrin Barge Persia has boosted its facial tissue output after it invested in two complete tissue rewinding lines from MCpapermachinery.
The first Focus Reelite 25 will be delivered in June 2012 and the second in December 2012, with the two lines processing reels from Metso tissue machines.
Both have a trim width of 5,450mm and include a four unwind stands type FR for parent reels with a diameter of 3,000mm, crown controlled calendars with swimming rolls and slitting units.
They also include rewinding heads that finish reels with a diameter of 2600mm and speeds up to 2,000m/min, reel wrapping and handling line, and a dust removal system.
The 1,070 staffed company is already in the diaper, fempad and adult incontinent business, and it also converts facial, toilet and kitchen towel.
Heidar Mizban, chairman of Saveh, Iranbased Zarrin Barge Persia, told TW that its main consumption remains facial tissue, but toilet is growing.
“We intend to produce the full range on our machines i.e. facial, toilet, napkins, kitchen, mtork, c-fold, brown towels as well as coloured tissue,” he said.
“All of these will be offered in virgin fibre and deinked fibre.”
He added that tissue consumption in Iran is increasing every year which is why the company purchased two tissue machines as well as a deinking plant.
There has been natural tissue growth in the country following an increase in population. “If we go in with state of the art Metso equipment that can produce high end tissue whether on virgin pulp or deiking, we believe the market will react positively and demand will increase,” he added.
The company has also acquired 300,000 m2 of land to house the investment and possible future purchases.
Mizban added: “Future tissue machines, deinking plants, and duplex machines are under feasibility studies now. Expansion of our existing converting plant is also under study.”
The tissue rewinding lines have a “no stress” concept, according to MCpapermachinery commercial director Mauro Della Santa.
He said the concept starts from unwind stands and ends with the removal of the finished reels. “It gives excellent results in terms of conservation of the initial properties of the tissue, especially on soft, high bulk and light tissue.
He told TW that the unique quality of the rewinding line was its electromechanical relieving systems for both rider roll and chuck carriages. “This allows very effective and precise relieving action that results in a very small loss, of bulk and crepe,” he said.
“Also the removal of the finished reels is an innovative system with electromechanical positioning system that gives no stress to the tissue.”
He added that this can help customers by keeping the properties of the finished reels very close to the ones of the parent reels coming from the tissue machine, the quality of finished products is improved.
MCPM designs and manufactures parts for tissue machines and is the paper division of Italybased Massimiliano Corsini.
“This allows very effective and precise relieving action that results in a very small loss, of bulk and crepe,” he said.
