The customer magazine of Andritz Pulp & Paper Issue 2 — 2005

Up the learning curve
The mill successfully mastered its
production learning curve, Guéron
says, on November 6, 2005 by
running 30 consecutive days at an
average daily production equal to
the design capacity of the mill
(2543 t/d of pulp). “Many times
we have produced over design
capacity,” he says. “The highest
single day of production has been
3220 tonnes.”
The original timeline for mastering
the curve was 12 months into
start-up. “However, due to the good
results we were experiencing,”
Guéron explains, “we shortened our
time frame. In the end, we were able
to do it 174 days after start-up —
just less than six months.”
SUSTAINABLE
FORESTRY:
a key competence
for Veracel
6 FiberSpectrum Issue 2 — 2005
Guilherme Araujo, Fiberline Manager
Andritz single-line
"We have the most important areas
of the mill supplied by Andritz,"
Guéron says. "We have had very
good cooperation and the equipment
itself is top quality. That is
exactly what we were after when
we made our selections in 2003."
"There was a time when no mill
would take the risk of having one
large piece of equipment," Guéron
says. "They would build-in redundancy
with at least two of everything.
Also, the owner had to blend systems
from different suppliers since
one was good in cooking, another
good in washing, another good in
bleaching. Today, the major suppliers
are good in all the processes,
so a single line is possible."
FiberSpectrum managed to get a few moments with Antônio Sergio Alipio, Forestry
Director of Veracel. Alipio is a very busy man managing an organization of 2400
forestry workers and helping local farmers to establish plantations as a future fiber
source for the mill. The following is a condensed version of his comments.
“Brazil has some of the most productive forests in the world, and Bahia has the most
productive in Brazil. The average for Brazil is 30 m 3 /ha/a (compared to 5 m 3 /ha/a in
Finland), and here in Bahia we average about 50 m 3 /ha/a. Wood transportation is
about 1/3 of our total fiber cost. Again, here at Veracel we have a distinct cost advantage.
Our transportation distance averages 43 km, which is well below the average for
other Brazilian mills. And, because the contour of the terrain is relatively flat here, we
are able to mechanize about 90% of our forestry operations.
All these factors make us very competitive.
Our plantations are intermingled with almost 90,000 ha of native forest areas and protection
zones which we have planted to regenerate the original forests. We plant about
4000 ha of plantation per year. Our plan is to grow our plantations to about 84,000 ha
owned by us and about 23,000 ha owned by private farmers. We are recruiting the
right farmers and teaching them how to become foresters. This will make a significant
improvement in economic development in this area.
A eucalyptus tree in Bahia grows to about 30 m in length and 20 cm diameter in seven
years. We use in-field debarking to keep the nutrients in the field. Our losses are minimal
(about 2% in harvesting and 2% in the mill).
All of our plantations rigorously meet the environmental laws and are in a final phase for
obtaining the CERFLOR certificate from the National Metrology Institute. We are clearly
committed to sustainable development and see this as one of our competitive strengths.”