China’s Sichuan Yibin Fires up First Tissue PM

Sichuan Yibin Paper Industry has started up the first tissue PM at its mill in Yibin city, in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan.

Supplied by A.Celli Paper, the unit features a width of 2.8 m and a design speed of 1,800 m/min, and has a capacity of 25,000 metric tons/yr. Four similar tissue PMs are being installed at the same site and are scheduled to be commissioned over the rest of the year.

They will be partly integrated with an on-site 200,000-metric ton/yr bamboo pulp line to produce virgin fiber-based tissue paper, including unbleached grades.

The company is also building converting equipment at the plant to process part of machines’ output into finished tissue products, a company executive told RISI. The Shanghai-listed producer has been trying to issue stocks to raise funds for the expansion project.

Currently the Yibin mill also operates a 350,000-mteric ton/yr cartonboard PM, which is partly furnished with in-house bamboo pulp as well.

The company is mulling over expanding its pulp capacity at the site to take further advantage of the abundant bamboo resources in the province. In April, the local environmental authorities published an initial environmental impact assessment (EIA) notice, open to advice from the public. In the notice, Yibin Paper outlined its plans to build two new bamboo pulp lines with a combined capacity of 450,000 metric tonn/yr.

The company executive said the pulp scheme is still in a preliminary planning stage and remains subject to positive EIAs.