APP CHINA MOVES AHEAD WITH HAINAN EXPANSION

PPI, May 2008

APP China is forging ahead with an expansion of its pulp and paper complex on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

The firm's subsidiary Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper has begun construction of a building at the site that will house the world's largest fine paper machine.

The unit, PM 2, will have a wire width of 10.96 m, a design speed of 2,000 m/min and a capacity of 900,000 tonnes/yr, according to a company spokesman. Startup is scheduled for June next year. The capacity figure is bigger than that previously announced, which was 700,000 tonnes/yr.

Voith Paper will supply the machine and its auxiliary systems, stock preparation, ventilation technology, automation and finishing gear. Siemens is providing the drives and electrical equipment.

Voith said that PM 2 would follow a similar concept to PM 3, a 700,000 tonne/yr fine paper machine also supplied by Voith, to Gold East Paper's Dagang mill in Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province, in China. Gold East is another subsidiary of APP China.

Gold East's PM 3, which has a wire width of 10.6 m and a design speed of 2,000 m/min, set a world speed record last year. The unit ran at 1,720 m/min on average for 24 hours on May 25, producing 100 g/m^sup 2^ double-coated woodfree paper.

The supplier said that PM 2 at the Hainan complex would feature an online coater, offering a great deal of flexibility for production of a broad range of grades.

The APP China spokesman indicated that the machine would focus on making heavyweight coated fine paper, such as the 250 g/m^sup 2^ grade, while the mill's future PM 1 will concentrate on lighter weight paper.