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China’s Taison Group is planning to build 150,000 tonnes/yr of bamboo pulp, 200,000 tonnes/yr of uncoated fine paper (UFP) and 250,000 tonnes/yr of tissue paper capacity in Leshan city, Sichuan.
The projects will be carried out at existing mills run by Sichuan Yongfeng Paper, the largest bamboo pulp producer in the country and an indirect subsidiary of the Taison Group since 2018.
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports on the pulp and paper expansion scheme were published last week, and they are now open to advice from the public.
According to the EIA documents, Sichuan Yongfeng will build a new 150,000 tonne/yr unbleached bamboo pulp line at a pulp mill in Muchuan county.
At present, the plant runs a 200,000 tonne/yr bamboo pulp line. Around 75% of its output is processed into dry pulp sheets and sold on the market. The remaining pulp is consumed by a tissue mill nearby, which is run by Sichuan Hefeng Paper, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sichuan Yongfeng.
Currently the plant houses dozens of small tissue PMs with a total capacity of 50,000 tonnes/yr. The company plans to replace all of them with 18 new units with a combined tissue paper capacity of 250,000 tonnes/yr.
The bamboo pulp capacity will feed the new TMs, with surplus to be sold on the market.
Sichuan Yongfeng also plans to install a new 5.6 m-wide UFP machine with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes/yr at its Yongfu mill, also in Muchuan county.
Around 20 km south of the tissue plant, the Yongfu mill currently runs several small PMs with 72,000 tonnes/yr of UFP and 10,000 tonnes/yr kraft paper capacity, together with a 100,000 tonne/yr bamboo pulp line.
Apart from the mills in Muchuan county, Sichuan Yongfeng has another 200,000 tonne/yr bamboo market pulp plant in Luzhou city, also in Sichuan province.
Fujian project: The Taison Group is also eyeing pulp and paper expansions in Nanping city, in the southeastern province of Fujian.
The group recently signed an RMB 5.8 billion ($819 million) investment plan with the government of Nanping to build 450,000 tonnes/yr of bamboo pulp capacity, 200,000 tonne/yr UFP capacity and 300,000 tonne/yr tissue paper capacity.
The investment plan is associated with the Nanping city government’s move to dispose of the idled, heavily-indebted Fujian Nanping Paper, though the local authority has not revealed any details.