Two of the world's biggest machines have started up in China to signal a seismic shift in the industry's production capabilities

By Jim Kenny

Dagang goes for gold in the east

Keeping an eye on the two new PMs

"Oh, this is just phase one," says Gold East Paper's vice president, LT Huang. "The second phase of the project is to get everything over to coated paper production and then after that we will look at adding a new paper machine or a new paper machine with an online coater running together. We're still doing the study ourselves to see which would be the best option."

At present, it remains far from clear when the new PMs would be added though. The Singapore-based company, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), owns the Dagang mill and the group is generally considered to be among the better-equipped Asian paper companies financially. The fact that the company is already in talks with suppliers for the new machines might suggest something could happen soon, but other sources believe it could be more than three years before the startup of any new PM at the plant. In the meantime, the prospects for the addition of a new coater look slightly better if the company opts to spend slightly less in the shorter term. But again, that remains speculation at this stage.

The first machine startup at the mill took place in February 1999 and this was followed by another at the very start of May. Despite the scale of the task, both startups were completed ahead of schedule, according to the mill's production manager, Chih-Ming Ma. But the complexity of the work involved in getting the machines up and running was eased by the fact that the two paper machines follow the same design.

As Ma explains, "Since the startup of the first machine, we've come very close to running at the maximum operating speed of 1,500 m/min, but it will take a little time yet. We're now at 1,458 m/min on one machine at the moment, but we hope we can reach the maximum speed at the end of the year."

On the line

More specific details are available in the boxes, but the basic layout for the mill starts with the stock preparation lines using equipment from Andritz. This section is followed by the two 10.5 m wire width gap former paper machines from Voith Sulzer. Among the other notable elements along the PMs are the Voith Sulzer size press, Integral IR (infrared) dryers from Jagenberg Krieger, Flexitherm thermo rolls and Voith Sulzer reelers.

Once the 60 ton reels have been through the winder, much of the output is sent to the off-machine coater from Valmet. OptiReel systems start and complete the action as the OptiCoat Jet unit carries the sheet through four jet coating stations, each making use of 133 actuators. The off-machine coater has a maximum operating speed of 1,800 m/min and utilizes an Ulma hole detection system and a GAW coating kitchen along the way.

ABB automation systems have been installed throughout the papermaking process, but, among other things, the Swiss-Swedish multinational supplier also supplied all the drives and electrical systems for the project as part of a massive contract worth of $100 million.

After the coater, there are two identical OptiLoad supercalenders that run in parallel - one a mirror image of the other. These lines run on to the rewinders, again from Valmet, which can churn out reels of up to 1.45 m in diameter and 2 m wide. Added to that, the Finnish supplier has also supplied a small salvage winder as part of its contribution to the finishing package.

The bulk of the mill's output is sold in sheets, so Gold East Paper runs a fairly extensive operation in this respect, which employs 1,000 people in the sheeting plant. Some 20 Jagenberg sheeters operate at up to 350 m/min in this part of the production line. The eight-step sheeters boast a capacity of 120 tons/day each and have their own individual control systems. At present, the finishing department can change each set of up to eight rolls every 10 minutes, and each sheeter can do up to four pockets. Typical sheet widths are 1,610 mm, but the units can do cross-cuts of up to 2,150 mm.

One of the world’s largest PMs installed at Gold East Paper

Wrapmatic units are used to form the sheets in reams, which will normally be stacked on pallets in bundles of either 20 or 25, depending on the product. There are six ream wrappers available for the uncoated output and 12 for the coated products. The pallets are then sent to Thimon units for shrink-wrapping and, finally, loading.

Quality counts

By November, the two PMs were averaging operating speeds of 1,400 m/min, while the off-machine coater had reached 1,550 m/min and the mill was aiming for the maximum speed of 1,800 m/min by the end of last year. As a result, the management team has been well pleased by the startup curve achieved on the project, and perhaps even happier about the quality standards the mill is getting out of the units. "It is good to know that the speed is increasing, but really the first thing for us is to make sure that we get the quality," says Ma. "Right now, we're producing at 92% ISO brightness, mainly because of the very good quality pulp we're getting from the Sinar Mas group in Indonesia, and a gloss of between 70 and 75, so we're very competitive in the market."

Clearly, there is much fine-tuning to be done on the technical side, but for now, the group will focus its efforts on the market. Undoubtedly, the next issue for the Gold East team is to make sure that they build up a strong customer base within China. In that sense, quality is a particularly important issue for the mill as the market in China is also changing.

The mill clearly boasts state-of-the-art equipment, which means that Gold East is targeting the top end of the market within China. Equally, the demands of the end-users are moving in the direction of Gold East's products as more and more businesses grow and open up to wider, even international competition. As Ma points out, "What we're producing is a lot better quality than what most people are used to having available in China. At the moment, a lot of people are still using paper made from straw or bagasse pulp, so our target is definitely the high grade end of the market. But a lot of people are starting to look for better service and that almost always includes better quality. So far, we've had a lot of good responses from the printing houses and as they invest in better machines all the responses suggest they're going to want better quality paper."

Staying home

The group has set up a merchanting deal that will market the output from the mill via 42 sales offices throughout the country. But as Huang readily admits, it will take time to build up a strong customer base within China. Huang describes sales within the company as merely "OK" for now and he recognizes that customers will need time to warm to a new papermaker in the market. In the meantime, APP's Jakarta office is coordinating international sales and already the customer list for the company runs across a number of Asian markets including Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and Hong Kong. And in November alone, the company was scheduled to export 70,000 tons.

As Huang explains though, the market within China is not only growing quickly, it is also changing fast. For example, sheets presently represent 90% or more of the mill's output, but as more printers invest in gravure equipment the portion of reels sold should gradually rise.

By the same token, exports are not expected to play a major part in the Gold East project in the long term. "I don't really want to put a figure on the export percentage we are targeting because, ideally, we want to sell all our paper in China," says Huang. "We are selling some already, but right now it's not really all that much. That will change, hopefully fairly quickly, but how fast it changes depends on how fast the customers move to better machines and better quality paper. Another reason for wanting to sell in China is that the prices we can get here are higher than in the export market."

By November, the mill's startup curve meant that about half the output was coated grades with the remainder uncoated woodfree. The woodfrees imported from outside China are slapped with an import duty of 12%, while coated woodfrees face a 15% levy. At the same time, pulp is rated with a 0% import tax and this generates a good business advantage for Gold East Paper, which uses short fiber shipped in from APP's Perawang and Jambi mills in Indonesia and long fiber from Canada and occasionally northern Europe.

Combined with 20-25% growth rates for the consumption of coated woodfree grades that the company estimates will be seen in the medium term, the outlook for the Dagang mill is certainly locked into the production of the high quality coated grades as the economy develops.

The enormous site at Dagang could be getting even bigger in the future

Despite the challenges ahead in terms of optimizing the machines and developing a strong customer base, the team at Dagang remains confident that the mill is in an incredibly strong position for the future. Gold East Paper is in a prime position to displace millions of tons of coated woodfree that are imported into China each year and consumption is growing fast. Added to that, the mill teams points out that it has some of the newest technology available and enjoys access to low-cost pulp from its sister plants in Indonesia.

Given the conditions, it is certainly possible, although not certain, that the Gold East Paper Company at Dagang in China could be getting a lot bigger sooner rather than later

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