China’s Sun Paper Starts 25,000-mtpy Tissue Machine in Shandong

China’s Shandong Sun Paper Industry has started up a new tissue PM at its mill in Yanzhou city, Shandong province.

The unit, dubbed PM 41, churned out its first sheet of tissue in early August.

Provided by domestic supplier Shanghai Qingliang Industry, the machine features a trim width of 2.85 m and a design speed of 1,600 m/min.

An identical machine is scheduled to start up this month. The output of the pair will be 100 percent virgin fiber-furnished tissue in a basis weight range of 10-30 g/m².

Sun Paper diversified into the tissue business in 2013 when it started up converting lines and launched end products on the domestic market.

In 2014 the company commissioned a 60,000-mtpy Andritz tissue machine at the Yanzhou mill. A second one followed in 2015.

Its first foray into the new territory met great challenges as the oversupply issue in China’s tissue market became increasingly obvious.

In the following five years, Sun Paper’s total tissue paper capacity stayed unchanged at 120,000 mtpy while the gross margin for its tissue business varied between 12.69 percent and 15.93 percent, one of the lowest among all of its pulp and paper products.

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