Sappi Orders New Valmet Chipper for Ngodwana Pulp Mill in South Africa

Valmet, Finland, will deliver a new gravity feed chipper to Sappi Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd Ngodwana. The upgrade targets are to increase the chipping capacity, to maintain or improve chip quality, and minimize wood losses. The chipper will be delivered and installed in May 2018, and startup is planned for the beginning of June 2018. The value of the order was not disclosed.

 

"Valmet came up with a unique solution to 'swop' out the existing chipper with a new larger chipper by not requiring any major concrete works changes, allowing for a short shutdown duration to install the new chipper, thus enabling minimal operation down time," saids Ryno Eksteen, senior regional project manager at Sappi.

 

"South Africa has been a successful market area for Valmet's wood handling business, and with this delivery we continue our positive trend. The Valmet sales team concentrated on optimizing the solution for a demanding raw material and minimizing the payback time for Sappi," said Jussi Taskinen, manager R&D, Valmet Product Portfolio & Strategy.

 

The order consists of a Camura GS1050 chipper with auxiliaries and a screen extension, including machinery, erection, commissioning, training, and startup supervision. Mechanical installation is also carried out by Valmet.

 

The Ngodwana mill has been in operation since 1966 and entered the dissolving wood pulp market in 2013. The mill produces paper grade pulp for captive use and for market consumption, as well as newsprint, containerboard, and dissolving wood pulp. The mill produces 330,000 metric tpy of paper pulp for its own consumption, 210,000 metric tpy of dissolving wood pulp, and 380,000 metric tpy of paper (newsprint and kraft linerboard used for packaging). Some 70% of the mill's product is exported and the balance is used locally.