China’s Lee & Man Plans Tissue Expansion in Chongqing

Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing is planning to add a total of 300,000 mtpy of tissue paper capacity to its existing mill in Yongchuan, Chongqing municipality, China.

In an environmental impact assessment report it submitted to the local government of Yongchuan in mid-August, the company said it will build 60,000 mtpy of hand towel capacity, 60,000 mtpy of kitchen towel capacity, and 180,000 mtpy of toilet paper capacity.

For the first leg of the scheme, it has signed up domestic supplier Baotuo Paper Machinery Engineering to provide six tissue machines with a combined capacity of 126,000 mtpy.

They are scheduled to commence production by the end of this year.

Lee & Man said it will cancel an already-approved plan to erect a 300,000-mtpy recycled containerboard machine at the Chongqing mill in exchange for the approval of the 300,000 mtpy of tissue capacity, so that there will be no additional emissions beyond what has already been permitted.

The decision was made due to the bright prospects for the Chinese tissue market, the Hong Kong-listed company explained.

China’s total ban on recovered paper imports, which will take effect next year, apparently played a role in the shift, too.

Back in 2006, Lee & Man obtained approval from the local authorities for the construction of four 300,000-mtpy recycled containerboard machines at the Chongqing mill.

So far, it has commissioned three BMs with a combined capacity of 1.02 million mtpy. They came online between 2008 and 2014.

The fourth BM is the one being taken off the table for the sake of the tissue capacity.

In 2014, the company, which is the second largest recycled containerboard producer in China, diversified into tissue production, firing up its first two TMs at the Chongqing mill.

Since then it has expanded rapidly in the sector, bringing 10 60,000-mtpy TMs online there between 2015 and 2018.

The tissue machines are furnished with a mixture of market wood pulp and in-house bamboo pulp from a 180,000-mtpy line.

The company has also started up several tissue machines at its Jiujiang mill in Jiangxi province and its Hongmei mill in Dongguan, Guangdong province.

At present its total tissue paper capacity is 972,000 mtpy.

Meanwhile, Lee & Man’s recycled board expansions in China have slowed down, with the total capacity unchanged at 6.34 million mtpy since the startup of a 400,000-mtpy recycled containerboard unit at the Jiujiang mill in 2017.

That was the year in which the Chinese government started to tighten solid waste import policies and introduced a ban on mixed paper intake.

The company has recently focused its board expansions in Southeast Asia, building recycled containerboard lines in Vietnam and Malaysia.

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