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With advanced scientific research and
development, ACF has decreased the
Eucalyptus plantation cycle to six years on
the first planting rotation, and has developed
nurturing techniques to grow harvestable trees
in as few as four years in a subsequent rotation
using coppicing, a traditional form of forest
management whereby new trees are grown
from the remaining trunk of a cut down tree.
In total, ACF has the capacity to produce five
million tons of wood annually.
The Hainan Central Nursery is where the
magic happens. Scientists closely monitor the
development of cross pollinated tissues and
seeds, led by Dr Wending Huang, deputy CEO
of APP China Forestry, who holds a degree
from China’s Nanjing Forestry University and
a PhD in forestry ecology from the University
of Helsinki. Employees can be seen analyzing
the tissue cultures, growing them into cuttings
ready to go for planting in the nursery’s 70
hectares of land. This location is capable of
producing 100 million cuttings each year,
and a smaller ACF nursery, Guangxi Central
Nursery, can produce 90 million cuttings
annually on 65 hectares. ACF cultivates
mostly Eucalyptus trees and also Acacia,
Pinus and Poplar.
The company explains that the lands the
government approves for timber growth are
typically undesirable for other agricultural use,
like sandy areas and low rainfall regions. The
firm must then go through a multi-step process
of engaging the landowners, producing a land
audit and submitting a request for approval
(that can be rejected). If the government
agrees to the proposal, and believes that the
locals will also benefit, a land tenure contract is
signed between the government and ACF.
All land in China is owned by the State, or
what it calls rural collectives, and plantations
are managed either by renting land from the
LABELS&LABELING
collectives in a profit sharing scheme,
or through a joint venture with the
landowners.
The organization and planning for
the development of these plantations
is highly complex. SAP software
creates profiles of each planting
zone to ensure proper raw materials
management, planting, harvesting,
road construction and maintenance,
and to assist the company in better
understanding the terrain so the best
saplings with the right resistance are
planted in the most beneficial areas.
This software has allowed ACF
to establish its own chain of
custody system to ensure only its
bio-engineered trees are harvested
and delivered to the mills. Tracking
systems map out best delivery routes.
Pre-harvest inventory measurements
are taken and trees are stacked and
locked on trucks for verifiable delivery.
Once delivered to the mill, the weight is
crosschecked with site records and the
delivery mileage is verified.
ACF regularly performs internal
and external audits of its systems,
such as runoff and land mineral
measurements, to ensure conformance
to national environment regulations,
which, contrary to popular belief, are
comparable to European standards.
This plantation-based fiber supply is
critical to the sustainable evolution of
China’s domestic paper market. Yet
the amount of fiber currently produced
by ACF does not meet the capacity
requirements of APP’s large pulping
facilities. And this well-managed timber
resource comes at a higher cost than
international averages.
HAINAN JINHAI PULP
AND PAPER PLANT
The vast Hainan Jinhai Pulp and
Paper plant, located in the Yangpu
Economic Development Zone, is a
key part of APP China’s integrated
pulp and paper production strategy.
This facility is also located on Hainan
Island off the southwest tip of China,
spreading a whopping 400 hectares, or
8,000 acres. Six thousand employees
run the nation’s largest pulp line
and a paper line which produce 1.2
million tons of pulp and 900,000 tons
of paper each year. The first phase
of development saw APP invest
10.5 billion RMB in 2005 to build a
bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp line
with an annual capacity of one million
tons. The line requires both short fiber
wood – like the hard wood Eucalyptus
and Acacia trees found domestically
– and long fibers only found outside
the country, which means making the
plant remains dependent on oversees
pulp producers in Canada and Brazil to
make quality fine paper.
Last September, the company
commissioned a 13.6 billion RMB Voith
fine paper machine with an annual
production capacity of 1.6 million tons.
The behemoth is the largest in the world,
428.18 meters long (half a kilometer),
10.96 m wide and housed in a building
660m long. It takes 20 minutes to walk