China’s Guizhou Chitianhua Fires up 60,000-Tonne/yr Tissue PM

Guizhou Chitianhua Paper Industry kicked off test runs on a new 60,000-tonne/yr tissue PM earlier this month at its mill in Chishui city, Guizhou province, in southwest China.

Dubbed TM 5, the Andritz unit has a trim width of 5.6 m and a design speed of 2,000 m/min, and is equipped with a 20-foot steel Yankee dryer. The new PrimeLineST machine will produce high-quality facial wipes, toilet paper, and paper tissues based on bamboo furnish produced mainly on site. 

The machine is currently unique on the Asian market because it combines a high-performance Yankee with a steam-heated hood. The Yankee is made entirely of steel, has a diameter of 20 ft, and hence is among the largest in the world. It enables a high drying capacity and achieves remarkable cost savings compared to systems operated with gas because it uses steam. 

An identical machine, dubbed TM 6, is about to come on stream there as well. Their startups were originally scheduled for the end of 2016 and early 2017 respectively.

The delay was mostly caused by road infrastructure problems around the Chishui plant, which sits in a mountainous area, a source close to the project told PPI Asia.

The pair is the first leg of the company’s plan to diversify into the tissue sector, eventually boosting its total tissue capacity to 300,000 tonnes/yr.

Once a state-owned enterprise, Guizhou Chitianhua was forced to stop production on its 250,000-tonne/yr bamboo pulp line in mid-2014 due to slow sales and financial distress.

In December 2014, the almost bankrupt pulp producer was acquired by Shanghai Taison Pulp, a subsidiary of Taison Group. The Taison Group controls two major recycled containerboard producers, Anhui Shanying Paper Industry and Jian Paper.

The idled pulp line came back into action in January 2015. The Taison Group has also invested in tissue business elsewhere. In mid-2015, it took over Chongqing Well Mind Paper, which boasts around 54,000 tonnes/yr of tissue capacity at a facility in Chongqing municipality.

And the group is also constructing a new mill in Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, where four 60,000-tonne/yr Voith tissue are going to go up.

 

 

Leaving the ANDRITZ Foshan workshop – the giant steel Yankee on its way to the customer.