Empresas CMPC Guaiba 2 Pulp Facility Now 88% Complete

 

Empresas CMPC, Santiago Chili, a forestry, pulp, paper, tissue, and packaging products producer, this week announced that its landmark Guaiba 2 Project, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, remains on budget and on schedule for startup in the second quarter of 2015. The facility was at 88% physical completion as of Dec. 31, 2014. Guaiba 2 will increase CMPC pulp capacity by more than 40% and lower average cash cost of production.

 

The main milestones achieved in the project's execution to date include completion of the electric substation, startup of the water supply system, hydrostatic testing of the digester and, most recently, first ignition of the recovery boiler.

 

Approved by the board of Empresas CMPC in December 2012, the $2.1 billion expansion of the Guaiba pulp mill will add 1.3 million tons of eucalyptus pulp capacity, bringing CMPC's total hardwood and softwood pulp capacity to 4.1 million metric tpy. The mill is 100% wood self-sufficient, and will lower CMPC's average pulp cash cost. During the construction phase, the expansion employed more than 9,000 highly qualified workers, one third of who were from local communities.

Next steps at the project will include pre-operational chemical cleaning of the recovery boiler, steam blow of the pipe lines to the turbogenerators, migration of the control systems to the new control room, putting in operation a chipping line in the woodyard, and continued commissioning activities in other systems.