(News from RISI) – While gearing up for the commissioning of a massive 2.8m tpy pulp mill in South Sumatra, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has shifted its tissue paper expansion plans from China to Indonesia.
The giant work site there is nearing completion of two 1.4m tpy bleached hardwood kraft pulp lines, scheduled for start-up in October.
The company envisages building several large tissue paper machines that will have a total capacity of half a million tpy at the plant sometime after the pulp lines come on stream.
A project timeline for the tissue PMs remains to be hammered out.
APP has already been expanding tissue capacity at other mills it owns in Indonesia.
Between late 2014 and early 2015, the company started up two 5.6m-wide machines, each having a capacity of 60,000tpy, at its pulp and paper mill in Perawang, Riau, Sumatra.
The two units were supplied by A Celli and have taken the number of tissue machines at the site to 20, with a combined capacity of 664,000tpy.
It is the largest tissue facility in the country.
China halt: The firm has decided to bring a close to its tissue expansion in China due to overcapacity.
Two 60,000tpy A Celli machines initially destined for China were subsequently redirected to Indonesia, according to APP sources and the Italian supplier.
One of them was erected at the company’s Jambi mill in Sumatra and the other went to the Karawang plant in West Java. The two units came online earlier this year.
These four new A Celli machines have boosted APP’s total tissue capacity in Indonesia from 704,000tpy to 1.064m tpy.
Meanwhile, the company signed up Toscotec for a large deal that is intended to supply several large tissue machines.
According to the manufacturer, two such units are being shipped to Indonesia for the Perawang plant.
Each of them will feature a steam hood and a 22-foot Steel Yankee dryer, with a design speed of 2,000m/min and a daily capacity of 192 tonnes.
Installation work for one is expected to kick off next month, with its start-up scheduled for the end of this year.
The other unit is slated to come on stream soon after the first PM is commissioned.
Once online they will be the world’s largest tissue machines.