China’s C&S Paper Unveils Big Bamboo Pulp and Tissue Project in Sichuan

China’s C&S Paper has announced an RMB 4.1-billion ($596.3 million) plan to build a bamboo pulp and tissue paper mill in Dazhou city, Sichuan province.

The project will include the installation of a 318,000-air dried mtpy bamboo pulp line in 2022, and a total of 300,000 mtpy of tissue paper capacity, which will be commissioned in three phases over five years.

The tissue machines will be integrated with the in-house bamboo pulp line.

The plan was greenlit by the Shenzhen-listed company’s board in late July but remains subject to the approval of shareholders and also to positive environmental impact assessments.

A leading tissue paper producer in China, C&S boasts a total capacity of around 630,000 mtpy. Despite its size, it relies solely on market pulp, especially imported wood pulp, as furnish.

The company said that leaves its profitability exposed to external factors such as international trade policies, global pulp market dynamics and exchange rate fluctuations.

Though the its revenue increased by more than 20 percent each year from 2016 to 2018, the growth rate of its net profit nosedived from 195.3 percent to 16.6 percent during the timeframe.

The company ascribed that to market wood pulp costs, which soared in the second half of 2017 and stayed high in 2018.

Now, it believes getting into pulp manufacturing will diversify its fiber sourcing and enhance its long-term development.

Tissue products furnished with bamboo pulp, especially unbleached bamboo pulp, have been gaining popularity recently in the Chinese market. This has attracted investment in Sichuan province, where bamboo resources are abundant.

For instance, Sichuan Anxian Paper commissioned four 15,000-mtpy tissue machines at its mill in Mianyang city in late 2018. Sichuan Yibin Paper Industry fired up five 25,000-mtpy tissue machines at its mill in Yibin city between September 2018 and March this year.

Furnishing these new machines with bamboo pulp has boosted production rates in China. According to the China Paper Association, the country’s bamboo pulp production reached 1.91 million mtpy last year, up from 1.65 million mtpy in 2017.

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