Ilim Group Completes Kraftliner Capacity Expansion Project in Bratsk
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Ilim Group announced that it has completed the KLB Line Rebuild Project in Bratsk (Irkutsk Oblast), Russia, with CAPEX worth more than USD 120 million. The mill started checkout and commissioning in October. The project, which is part of Ilim's large-scale investment program involving development of the existing facilities and launch of new capacities, will increase kraftliner production capacity of the Bratsk mill by 50% — from 198,000 tons up to 300,000 tons per year.
According to Ilim, the large-scale upgrade involved the entire KLB production process starting from pulp cooking to finished product packaging. GLV, PMP Group and Andritz were Ilim's key partners under this project. Upgraded KLB production complies with the standards of the global forest industry leaders in terms of equipment scope, applied technologies and automation level of management and control processes.
“The Bratsk project is a part of the large investment program with a CAPEX exceeding USD 3 billion,” said Kseniia Sosnina, CEO of Ilim Group. “Ilim is investing not only in output increase, but also in the quality of our products, cutting-edge automation and digitalization technologies of its operations, global best practices in environment and sustainable forest management, and logistic infrastructure.”
“As the Russian pulp and paper leader, Ilim intends to strengthen its positions in the growing Asian market and in the packaging segment in particular through upgrade of its mills in Siberia and construction of a new pulp and paperboard mill in Ust-Ilimsk with a capacity of 600 thousand tons per year. By 2024, Ilim's aggregate annual output will increase by 40 % to reach 4.4 million tons,” Sosnina added.
