Chinese paper mill group Nine Dragons Paper has revealed that it will have 3 million tonnes of wood pulp production capacity by 2023.
It will also have 1.1 million tonnes of wood fibre production by the end of 2022.
This is in response to the ban on imports of recovered fibre introduced by China at the beginning of this year.
The news was announced in its annual results for the year ended June 2021, where it unveiled a 70.4% increase in profits to RMB7.1 billion (£814 million).
In a statement, Nine Dragons Paper said: “With the full implementation of the ‘zero import quota on recovered paper’ policy, securing source of raw material supply remained our primary concern in regard to our production capacity expansion plan.
“In respect of preparation of quality raw materials, we have planned ahead and implemented the fully-integrated pulp and paper projects in Jingzhou, Hubei, Shenyang, Liaoning and Beihai, Guangxi, which are expected to provide the group with wood pulp production capacity of more than 3 million tonnes for its own use by year end of 2023.
“By that time, we will be able to exercise better control over product quality and production costs. During the up cycle of wood pulp prices in the international market, the advantages of our vertical integration of the production chain will prevail in particular.
“Combined with the 0.6 million tonnes of recycled pulp resources to be added in Malaysia, the Group’s total design production capacity for pulp (wood pulp and recycled pulp) will reach 4.57 million tpa by year end of 2023. Furthermore, we are in the process of adding production capacity of wood fibre as an alternative raw material, the production capacity of which will reach 1.10 million tonnes by year end of 2022.”
Following the ban on single use plastics in China, Nine Dragons Paper sees opportunities in expanding production capacity for white top linerboard, virgin kraftliner and bleached folding boxboard.
Currently, it is developing 6.25 million tonnes of additional production capacity in China and Malaysia.
