The company plans to build two Greenfield recycled pulp plants to support global fibre strategy.
October 9, 2018
ND Paper plans to build two Greenfield recycled pulp plants to support global fibre strategy. The company will invest USD 300m into its newly acquired US mills in Biron, Wisconsin and Rumford, Maine in the next two years. ND Paper, the newly formed U.S.-based subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Ltd. that has mills in Rumford and Biron, Wisconsin, is the largest containerboard producer in Asia.
In June 2018, Nine Dragons acquired Catalyst’s US mills Biron and Rumford for a total transaction price of USD 175m. Immediately after completing the purchase, ND Paper launched a strategic review of investment options and developed an investment strategy that diversifies the US mills’ product mix and increases their overall production capacity.
The Rumford Division will receive an injection of USD 111m to finance two significant projects: 1). construction of a greenfield recycled pulp facility with a capacity of 1,200 air dried metric tonnes per day (admtpd), and 2). installation of a shoe press on the R15 paper machine to increase the machine’s production capacity by approximately 20 percent.
The mill currently has a capacity to manufacture 550,000 tpy of coated mechanical and woodfree paper on 3 PMs. Furthermore, the facility can produce 120,000 tpy of hard- and softwood pulp. As a result of the investments announced, the number of staff at the mill will go up from currently 650 to 700 in the next two years.
At the Biron Division, ND Paper will invest USD 189m in several projects such as conversion of the B25 paper machine from LWC to containerboard; construction of a two-line greenfield recycled pulp facility will a capacity of 1,900 air dried metric tonnes per day (admtpd); and construction of a water treatment and fibre recovery plant, a package boiler to provide energy, storage facilities for raw materials and a finished good warehouse.
These measures will create 27 new jobs, bringing the total staff number at the site to 377. The Biron mill currently has a capacity to produce 340,000 tonnes a year of LWC on two PMs.
