Sun Paper to Set Up Subsidiary in the US for Fluff Pulp Project

China’s Sun Paper Industry has decided to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Delaware to run the $1.3 billion fluff pulp mill the company intends to build in Clark County, AK.

Temporarily named Sun Bio Material (U.S.) Company, the division will handle applications for environmental permits and preferential policies for the pulp project, and will also operate the mill once it is commissioned.

The progress of permitting will be accelerated after the establishment of the US subsidiary, the company announced in early February.

Sun Paper signed a memorandum of understanding with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission in April 2016, planning to build a 700,000-tonne/yr fluff pulp mill in the US state.

Local media in Arkansas reported last July that the planned early-2017 construction start for the plant was to be pushed back more than six months because of the longer-than-expected time needed for pre-engineering and feasibility studies. But Sun Paper told PPI Asia that it has not laid out a timeline for the investment, which is still in the early planning stages.

China has long been dependent on imports of fluff pulp, the main raw material for diaper and other disposable hygiene products. The planned US pulp mill is believed to be a prop for Sun Paper’s incursion into the hygiene product market.

The company struck a deal with Nippon Paper Industries subsidiary Crecia last year, to market the Japanese firm’s baby diaper brand, Suyappy, in China.