Sun Paper Makes It Official: $1 Billion Pulp Mill to be Located in Arkadelphia, Ark.

On Tuesday of this week (April 26), Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson told a group of reporters and state dignitaries that China-based Sun Paper will construct its previously announced $1 billion pulp mill/biorefinery in Arkadelphia (Clark County), Ark., USA. Hongxin Li, chairman and founder of Sun Paper, joined Governor Hutchinson for the official announcement in the Governor’s Conference Room at the Arkansas State Capitol. Sun Paper will invest more than $1 billion in the new "bioproducts" mill, creating 250 direct new jobs at an average salary of $52,000 a year. 

A video of the governor's announcement is available online. 

This will be Sun Paper’s first facility in North America, and is one of the largest private investments in Arkansas’ history. In addition to the 250 direct jobs, the new mill will employ some 2,000 people during construction and create an additional 1,000 on-going indirect jobs in the timber industry. It will produce both fluff pulp and dissolving pulp, as well as several key "bioproducts" from pulping hydrolysate created during the pulping process, as Chairman Li explained to Larry Montague, TAPPI president and CEO, and Ken Patrick, editor of TAPPI’s Tissue360o magazine, during a special meeting this past Monday in Little Rock, Ark. 

TAPPI will publish special articles about the new mill in upcoming issues of its Paper360o and Tissue360o magazines, as well as periodic update reports in the association’s weekly Over the Wire and monthly Tissue360o newsletters.

As pictured in the top right photo, the mill will be built about 65 miles southwest of Little Rock in the city of Arkadelphia, about 10 miles south of Hot Springs The new plant will be built off of Interstate 30, offering connections further southwest as well as east when connecting with Interstate 40 towards Memphis, Tenn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the meeting with TAPPI on Monday (April 25) were (l-r): Andrzej Bednarski, Sun Paper international project director; Larry Montague, president and CEO of TAPPI; Hongxin Li, chairman of Sun Paper; and Guangdong Ying, VP and chief engineer of Sun Paper.

Chairman Li told attendees during Tuesday’s meeting at the Arkansas State Capital that "this project will be the most modern, the highest efficiency, the most environmentally progressive factory in the pulp and paper industry in all of North America." He said the company hopes to begin construction on the mill in the first half of 2017, and said it will take two and a half years to build.

Governor Hutchinson noted that the new mill "will result in a real boost to the economy of south Arkansas throughout the timber industry. I not only think about the 250 direct jobs, but also the log haulers, those in the fields, and the timber industry that will benefit from this extraordinary project and investment."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Governor Hutchinson traveled to China this past November and met with Sun Paper officials. He signed a letter of intent (pictured above) at that time to study the feasibility of building the plant in Arkansas. An Arkansas economic development official said that as recently as earlier this month, Sun Paper was also considering Mississippi for the mill.

The project is receiving $10 million in local incentives for infrastructure at the site and another $92 million in local property tax abatement. The project will also receive several incentives from the state, including cash rebates based on its payroll, sales tax refunds on construction materials, and a recycling tax credit.

The state also has agreed to expedite the process for approving the air and wastewater permits necessary for the project.

Based in Shandong Province, Sun Paper employs 10,000 people worldwide and is China’s largest privately owned papermaking enterprise.