SHANGHAI, 30 September 2015 (RISI) - Shandong Chenming Paper Holdings has recently got approval to build a new 400,000 tonne/yr bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp line at its flagship mill in Shouguang city, Shandong province, China.

The Shandong provincial environmental authorities geeenlit the firm's revised environment impact assessment (EIA) report in September.

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection had rejected the previous version of the EIA report in December 2014.

In the earlier document, the ministry found that the area where the fiber line was to be built is environmentally sensitive, because some residential quarters are nearby.

Also, there is no capacity for waste emissions in the area.

The ministry also pointed out other problems with the report, such as calculation mistakes about gas emissions.

Since then, Shandong Chenming has worked to amend the report to meet environmental standards.

According to the new EIA file, the pulp line will be still built at the previously proposed site.

But in a bid to reduce the project's impact on people nearby, the firm and the local government have worked out a specific plan to relocate some residents.

Moreover, to get enough capacity for the new pulp line's waste emissions, Shandong Chenming plans to retire BHK pulp capacity of 153,000 tonnes/yr, two integrated recovery boilers, and two deinking pulp lines with a combined capacity of around 350,000 tonnes/yr (including a 250,000 tonne/yr line integrated with the firm's 480,000 tonne/yr newsprint PM).

It will also relocate an 850,000 tonne/yr white-top linerboard PM and upgrade the waste water treatment for a 200,000 tonne/yr mechanical pulp line at the same plant.

Previously, the firm only proposed to wipe out the BHK capacity and two integrated boilers.

In China, water and air pollution has been drawing increasing attention, and the central government has released action plans to tackle the problems.

Confronting tightening environmental standards, many industrial plants including pulp and paper mills now have to invest more to curtail emissions.

With regard to this BHK fiber line project, Shandong Chenming explained that based on the updated EIA file, two local reservoirs will supply fresh water to the new pulp line, but the mill's total fresh water consumption and wastewater emissions will decrease.

Although the total gas emissions will increase, the local authorities have made a plan to cut emissions from other pollution sources in the city so as to control the total amount of emissions within the area.

When giving its approval, the Shandong government stressed that all the mentioned machine shutdowns, relocation and rebuild will have to be finished before the startup of the new BHK line.

But the timeline of the new line has not been hammered out.

Shandong Chenming announced the BHK line project in 2013, in a bid to increase its pulp production to feed its PMs at the Shouguang plant.

The mill has a total capacity of around 3.4 million tonnes/yr of paper and board grades, and sources a lot of market pulp.

BSK line under construction: Shandong Chenming has endeavored to build more fiber lines to reduce its reliance on imports.

It is operating an 850,000 tonne/yr BHK pulp line at a mill in Zhanjiang city, Guangdong province.

It has also recently placed an order for a new 300,000 tonne/yr bleached softwood kraft pulp line at a greenfield mill in Huanggang city, Hubei province.

It is planned to start up in 2017.

Valmet has been signed up to supply the fiber line, which will also be able to make dissolving pulp.

White-top liner PM offline: The white-top linerboard machine at the Shouguang mill that is to be relocated has been offline for several months, since earlier this year.

The unit was supplied by Voith, and started up in 2012. It has a trim width of 9.6 m and a design speed of 1,200/min.

It is reported the firm has been mulling over relocating the PM to its Zhanjiang mill in Guangdong province since early this year, and rebuilding it to make coated ivory board.

Market contacts said that demand for white-top linerboard has been flat amid the weak economy, and some other producers such as Shandong Century Sunshine Paper and Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) are pricing their tonnage competitively.

The Zhanjiang mill houses three uncoated printing and writing PMs with a combined capacity of 1.02 million tonnes/yr.