Voith to Supply New Tissue Machine to The Navigator Company's Cacia mill

The Navigator Company has continued its expansion in the tissue sector and signed a contract with Voith for the supply of a new XcelLine tissue machine. The production line is designed to sustainably produce high-quality tissue paper maximizing the usage of slush Eucalyptus pulp. The new tissue facility will be integrated in the existing Cacia site in Portugal, where the company operates one of the biggest pulp production plants in Europe.

The scope of supply includes the latest Voith technologies to minimize energy consumption and achieve maximum efficiency in short fiber usage. Above all, the NipcoFlex T shoe press was a key factor in choosing Voith. With this technology, the need for thermal energy can be substantially reduced. The tissue machine is designed for an operating speed of 2,000 m/min. and will produce 70,000 tonnes/yr of high-quality toilet and towel paper from pulp with a working width of 5,600 mm. Startup is scheduled for second half of 2018. With this new investment the total tissue production capacity of The Navigator Company will raise to 130,000 tonnes/yr.

The new tissue production line will be equipped with further energy-efficient, operator friendly components and systems like the Pluralis refining technology, the MasterJet headbox, EvoDry T steel Yankee and the EcoHood T. A core part of the delivery will be the Papermaking 4.0 features including the innovative ComCore automation platform.

The Navigator Company is one of Europe’s leading producers of pulp and paper. It has a total paper capacity of 1.6 million tonnes/yr, largely integrated with pulp production and more than 3,000 employees. As part of its development plan for a new cycle of growth, the Navigator Company in 2015 acquired an established tissue manufacturer: AMS-BR Star Paper, S.A.

The Navigator Company is the new face of the former Portucel Soporcel group, after its rebranding in 2016. The Navigator Company is Portugal’s third leading exporter, and the exporter generating the highest level of national value added. The Group accounts for approximately 1% of Portugal's GDP, around 3% of the country's total exports of goods. In 2016, the Company set a new all-time record for paper output, with an annual turnover of approximately 1.6 billion euros.

Having consolidated its position as the leading European manufacturer, and the fourth largest in the world, of uncoated woodfree (UWF) printing and writing paper, The Navigator Company is also Europe's top producer of bleached eucalyptus globulus kraft pulp (BEKP), the fifth largest in the world, and has entered the tissue market, where it expects to become one of key players in the continent. As a vertically integrated forestry Company with its own forestry research institute RAIZ, it manages vast tracts of forest in Portugal certified under the FSC and PEFC systems and boasts annual production capacity for 1.6 million tonnes of paper, 1.4 million tonnes of pulp (of which 1.1 million is integrated into paper) and power generation of 2.5 TWh.

Voith Paper is a corporate division of Voith and one of the leading partners and pioneers in the paper industry. Through constant innovations, Voith Paper is optimizing the paper manufacturing process, focusing on developing resource-conserving products to reduce the use of energy, water and fibers.