Crown Paper Mill suffers deinking plant installation delay

BRUSSELS, March 28, 2008 (RISI) - Crown Paper Mill is suffering a minor delay with the installation of a new deinking plant at its facility in Ajman in the United Arab Emirates.

The new unit, which was supplied by Comer, is ready to come online, but the startup has been put on hold until the government completes a sewage pipeline outside the facility. “There is an issue with the wastewater disposal,” a Crown Paper Mill spokesperson said. “There is no sewage outlet outside our mill. It will probably take another two or three months to complete.”

The government has already built a new wastewater recycling plant in the vicinity. “The government is very concerned about environmental issues,” the spokesperson said. “They don’t want any wastewater going into the sea.”

The deinking plant was initially set to come on stream by the end last month. The new 80 tonne/day unit will enable the mill’s PM 2 to produce various qualities of tissue grades.

Crown Paper Mill started commercial production on PM 2 toward the end of last year. The 23,000 tonne/yr unit is designed to manufacture soft, smooth, bulky and strong paper. The firm is selling jumbo reels produced on the machine to converters in the domestic market, but also to other Gulf Cooperative Council countries, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the UK.

The plant houses another unit, PM 1, which produces 12,000 tonnes/yr of tissue from virgin pulp.