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JINHAI Paper Machine
China invests to meet
booming paper demand
CHINA’S enormous hunger for paper, including packaging and label papers, is driving the country to raise
domestic production. Danielle Jerschefske reports
Paper was invented in China during the
Han Dynasty in 105 AD and in 740 AD the
first newspaper was printed there. Through
trade and war the skill made its way
through the Middle East and into Europe
where Johann Guttenberg invented the
printing press in 1453. Now the material is
everywhere.
Current global consumption of paper
stands at 345 million tons, up from 300
million tons at the end of last year. In
China, a country that is experiencing
rapid growth in all areas – the label sector
alone is growing at eight to 10 percent per
annum – it is difficult to meet the demand
for paper from domestic resources alone.
The nation’s domestic consumption of
paper has risen 121 percent since 2000
and national demand probably surpassed
100 million tons in 2010. With the economy
growing at 10 percent per year, it has been
hard for the domestic Chinese forestry
industry to keep up with demand, and
pulp imports increased by over 43 percent
between 2008-2009. By 2015 the country’s
timber consumption is expected to reach
340 million square meters, over twice
China’s annual production.
The Chinese government reacted with
its Forest Industry Development Plan
(2010-2012), which aims to increase
domestic production of wood fiber by 12
percent each year, supporting, through
subsidies and favorable state loans, the
development of integrated plantation-pulp-
paper systems. One of the companies
which has benefited is Asia Pulp and
Paper (APP) China.
APP is a subsidiary of the Sinar Mas
Group conglomerate headquartered
in Singapore, founded in Indonesia in
1972 by one of Indonesia’s wealthiest
men, Eka Tjipta Widjaja. In 1978 it was
producing a mere 12,000 tons of paper
a year.
The company first entered the Chinese
market in 1992 and now manages 20
pulp and paper mills as subsidiaries or
joint ventures. The company employs
over 38,900 people and has total assets
of RMB 96.3 billion (14.8 billion dollars)
and annual sales over RMB 37.9 billion
(5.8 billion dollars) in 2010. APP China’s
vision is to become the world’s premier
fully integrated ‘green-cycle forestry’,
pulp and paper company.
APP China Forestry (ACF) was
established in 1995 on the island
of Hainan, a vacation destination
considered to be the Hawaii of China. It
manages more than 303,000 hectares
(one hectare = 2.3 acres) of plantations
in eight Chinese provinces all certified
to ISO 14001 standards. But these
plantations are not always laid out in the
fashion that one would imagine. Rather
than planting groomed rows and rows
of harvestable trees, the ACF plantations
are often scattered throughout the
landscape, integrated into the local
communities amongst local farming land
suitable for various crops like pineapple
and peppers.
GEP engineer at paper machine
JANUARY 2012 | L&L