Aiming High

Lee & Man Changshu mill adds two new containerboard machines in double quick time

December 2007
By Annie Zhu, Features Editor

Lee & Man Changshu mill in Jiangsu Province, eastern China last month brought a new recycled linerboard machine, PM 10, into commercial production – its second new PM this year.

The 300,000-tonne/yr unit, PM 10, comes from suppliers Gold Star in South Korea and Kobayashi Engineering Works in Japan. It has a trim width of 5.5 m, wire width of 6.6 m, and a design speed of 750 m/min.

Lee & Man Changshu mill produces 1.2 million tonnes/yr of recycled containerboard on four machines

According to Lee & Man Changshu production manager, Henry Wang, the new machine was running at 570 m/min (producing 120 g/m2 board) during trials in early October and was expected to hit the design speed during November. Like the mill's PM 5, PM 10 will concentrate on heavier grammages (175-250 g/m2).

The total cost of the new board machine and all facilities (including a 140 MW coal-fired power plant) comes to RMB 800 million ($107 million). PM 10 is fed by a 300,000-tonne/yr deinked pulp (DIP) line supplied by Kadant Black Clawson (KBC).

Production manager, Henry Wang: "We always show our customers [PM 8 – pictured] when they visit the mill"

Handling the fiber

Lee & Man CEO Raymond Lee explains that although 80% of his firm's raw material comes from Europe and North America, there's a trend toward more locally sourced recovered fiber (RCF), because Chinese consumers continue to produce more waste.

"We have fairly sophisticated systems [for stock preparation] with several stages of cleaning, screening, fractionation, heat dispersion, and refining," explains Lee. "Our systems can handle more than we need to give us flexibility with a range of characteristics from different types of waste paper."

According to KBC China's VP of sales and marketing, Peter Ma, customers such as Lee & Man configure the trash well to handle high contaminant loads, which is a common concern. "It's important to have high defibering efficiency at the pulping loop to minimize fiber loss," he notes.

For Lee, system performance is the #1 priority: "Price is not the biggest concern," he points out. "A system that works well can save us a lot of money in the future."

PM 8: the role model

The startup of PM 10 brings the total capacity at Changshu to 1.2 million tonnes/yr of containerboard. The latest unit follows hot on the heels of PM 8, which started up on February 17, 2007. Wang regards the 400,000-tonne/yr 3-ply kraftliner machine as the role model in Asia. "We always show our customers this machine when they visit the mill," he says proudly.

The Metso-supplied PM 8 has a wire width of 7.25 m and design speed of 1,150 m/min. In early October, the unit was running at 1,050 m/min and Lee & Man expects to reach the design speed in the near future.

PM 8 operates in a basis weight range of 120-240 g/m2, but is mainly concentrating on the lower grammages. "Right now there is high demand for the lightweight," says Wang.

Most output is going to box plants in southeastern China, with some also being exported to the Americas.

Some 180 people work on PM 8, out of a total workforce at Lee & Man Changshu of 1,500 people. One year before the startup of a new machine, operators are sent for six months of hands-on training on other Lee & Man machines. One month before startup, a second lot of training takes place on a DCS simulator. Some employees are recruited from South China University of Technology, where a two-year training course for papermakers is on the curriculum. "We also recruit graduates from Shannxi University of Science and Technology to supplement our talent pool," says Wang. The production manager believes the high level of knowhow among mill staff has contributed to the smooth startup of its machines.

The first unit at Changshu was PM 5, a 200,000-tonne/yr recycled linerboard machine, which started up in December 2003. Delivered by Kobayashi, the machine is fed by a 1,000-tonne/day old corrugated container (OCC) line supplied by KBC.

PM 6, which produces recycled fluting, was born in September 2004. At 350,000 tonnes/yr, it is currently the largest recycled fluting machine in China. KBC again supplied the OCC line.

Lee & Man has set up recovered paper operations around the world in order to secure a steady stream of OCC, including collection offices in Los Angeles and New Jersey, USA, as well as offices in the UK, Netherlands and Japan. In China, the company maintains more than 20 collection points to secure local recovered fiber.

PM 8, which started up in February, has a capacity of 400,000 tonnes/yr of kraftliner

Highly efficient

Wang points out that around 30% of the kraftliner produced by PM 5 and PM 8 is exported, while 80-90% of PM 6's recycled fluting goes to Southeast Asia and North America.

PM 5 has achieved 97% efficiency, the highest among the mill's production lines. PM 6 is 94% efficient and PM 8 has an efficiency level of 94-95% currently. "This can be further improved to 96%," says Wang.

The Changshu site has room for one further paper machine. However, for now Lee & Man is now focusing on sites elsewhere as part of its aggressive drive for growth (the firm is aiming to have close to 4 million tonnes/yr of containerboard capacity by the end of 2008).

The control room for PM 8

In between PM 8 and PM 10 at Changshu, the firm started up PM 9 at Hongmei mill in Dongguang City, Guangdong Province in June 2007, another 400,000 tonne/yr Metso-supplied kraftliner unit. This was followed just two months later at the same mill by PM 11, a 300,000-tonne/yr linerboard machine from Gold Star and Kobayashi Engineering Works.

In 2008, Lee & Man is set to make its first foray into papermaking outside its home market, when the 400,000-tonne/yr PM 15 (once again supplied by Metso Paper) comes on stream at a greenfield mill in Hau Giang, Vietnam (startup is slated for July).

By that time, PM 13 at another new mill base – Chongqing – south-central China, should be up and running. The 320,000-tonne/yr recycled linerboard machine will be fed by a 125,000-tonne/yr unbleached bamboo pulp line, set up to take advantage of the abundance of this non-wood fiber in neighboring Sichuan province.

Most of the mill's output goes by truck and ship to box plants in China

Further expansion is also in the cards at Hongmei, where the 300,000 tonne/yr PM 12 is set to start up early next year (with Finland's Vaahto supplying two headboxes and a top former), and the 400,000-tonne/yr PM 17 at the beginning of 2009. The Metso order is valued at around Euro 400 million ($580 million) and will comprise a three-ply machine with a wire width of 7.25 m and design speed of 1,150 m/min.

All told, Lee & Man, aims to have more than 4.5 million tonnes/yr of containerboard capacity in 2009, making it the second largest producer of the grade in the world. Not bad going for a company that was founded in 1994.

And the breakneck pace of investment for the Cayman Islands-registered and Hong-Kong headquartered firm looks set to continue. Wang admitted that Lee & Man is doing preparatory work for another mill base in Guangxi province, to the west of Guangdong in southern China.

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