APP China is moving ahead with a mas-sive expansion project for its mill on the Chinese island of Hanan. The firm aims to boost the plant’s pulp capacity from 1 million tonnes/yr to 1.78 million tonnes/yr and build up a fine paper and tissue capacity of almost 2 million tonnes/yr to make the mill an integrated facility in the next few years. The cost of the investments will total RMB 13.6 billion ($1.8 billion).

            The mill, which is owned by APP China’s subsidiary, Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper, boasts the world’s largest single-line bleached hardwood kraft pulp line, which came on stream in November 2004. APP China plans to upgrade the eucalyptus and acacia line in two phases. The first leg includes the installation of two pressure diffusers and some other rebulding work on the line. The aim is to boost the line’s capacity from 1 million tonnes/yr to 1.32 million tonnes/yr. APP China has submitted the environmental impact assessment on the pulp expansion project to the government and is awaiting approval.

            A company spokesman said that the gov-ernment was expected to give the all clear before the end of May. The firm is looking at carrying out the first stage of the upgrade this month or next. The second leg of the scheme will bring the line’s capacity to 1.78 million tonnes/yr. But the timeline remains to be hammered out. Metso Fiber Larlstad supplied the original pulp line, woodyard and chip processing equipment.

            On the paper side, APP China has placed an order with Voith Paper for two 700,000-tonne/yr fine paper machines. The units will each be 10.96 m wide and have a design speed of 2,000 m/min .The first machine is slated to come online in June 2009. The startup date for the second PM has not yet been decided, nor whether the machines will produce coated or uncoated paper.

            The firm’s ambitious tissue expansion plans include erecting a total of 24 machines. Two of the six tissue machines APP China has ordered from the Italian suplier A Celli have been installed at the mill and have come on stream. The remaining four units are to be erected as soon as the equipment is delivered to the site. Each of the six PMs will be 2.8m wide, with a design speed of 1,800 m/min and a capacity of 28,000 tonnes/yr.

            The next stage will see another 18 tissue machines, each with a capacity of around 20,000 tonnes/yr, installed at the mill in the next two years. APP China has set up its own plant to manufacture tissue PMs in Dagang, a township in Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province. The factory is owned by its sub-sidiary, Jin Shun, and is located near APP China’s flagship Dagang mill, a fine paper plant owned through another subsidiary, Jiangsu Gold East Paper.

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