Displaying items by tag: Ilim Group

Ilim Group’s new papermaking machine at Koryazhma mill in Arkhangelsk region, built as a part of Big Koryazhma investment project, produced its first paper on March 03.

During the coming weeks, Ilim Group’s specialists, supported by experts from International Paper and representatives of equipment suppliers, will be working together to bring the machine up to full production, and help it meet all of the product quality parameters.

New high-quality office and offset paper will soon enter Russian market.

Big Koryazhma is a $270-million investment project involving construction of a new paper machine, installation of an off-machine coater, cut-size and folio sheeters, construction of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) plant as well as implementation of some infrastructure projects. Construction of a new paper machine in Koryazhma started in summer of 2011. As a result of the project, Russia’s most advanced state-of-the-art paper machine has started operations which will produce more than 150,000 tons of office paper per year.

In summer of 2013, the company will also start producing 70,000 tons of coated paper per year to make Ilim Group Russia’s only manufacturer of this product. The project was approved by Ilim Group’s Board of Directors on June 30, 2010. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has given this project a top priority status.

source: whatwood

Ilim Group reported full-year 2012 production results. Company's mills in Siberia and the Russian Northwest manufactured over 2.58 million tons of pulp and paper products. Production at Koryazhma mill in Arkhangelsk region increased 4% year-on-year, in Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk (Irkutsk region) output remained nearly flat.

This includes 1.64 million tons of market pulp, which is 2% higher on-year, 708,000 tons of market containerboard, which is flat compared to 2011 and 235,000 tons of paper grades (+5% to 2011).

Ilim Gofra, corrugated box business of Ilim Group in Leningrad region, manufactured 129.5 million sq m of products, which is 6% more than in 2011.

Own logging of Ilim Group in Arkhangelsk region reached 2.3 million cu m, while in Siberia the company harvested 6.7 million cu m of wood.

Ilim Group held a meeting with representatives of Russia's largest printing offices and distributors of print media and paper products in order to familiarize them with the progress on construction of the first coated freesheet paper production in Russia. The meeting was attended by representatives of Russia's largest printing mills, including Bereg, Regent, Petrobumaga, Papirus, Double V, A.Brown, Eksmo and AST publishing houses.

At the meeting Ilim Group told the attendees about the implementation status of the investment project that will ultimately enable the Koryazhma Branch of OJSC Ilim Group in Arkhangelsk region to produce coated paper complying with European quality standards in Q2 2013. The company will produce up to 90,000 tons of double-coated paper per year, its basis weight ranging from 90 to 150 gsm (both matt and glossy), to be available in rolls and sheets.

The company was represented by Vera Bubelo, White Papers Business Director, and marketing and sales experts. Vera Bubelo spoke about quality of the future products, expected product range and the company's strategy for cooperation with customers, and answered the questions. Upon the company's invitation, the meeting was also attended by representatives of the St. Petersburg State Technical University of Plant Polymers who spoke about specific features associated with coated freesheet papers manufacturing.

‘’We consider it really important that our potential customers understand well what we plan to do and what we can do. We tried to describe our products, technology, and our cooperation strategy in as much detail as possible. We have been present at the Russia's pulp and paper market for over 20 years and have proven ourselves as a reliable supplier of board, pulp and offset paper. Now we aim at establishing long-term partnership relations with representatives of Russia's printing industry. We hope that this meeting will be the beginning of our cooperation. We have all prerequisites for that’’, Bubelo noted.

Over the first nine months of 2012, Ilim Group’s mills in the Northwest Russia and in Siberia manufactured 1,928,000 tons of pulp and paper products, which is slightly more than for the same period last year.

The output of market pulp reached 1,224,000 tons, which is a 2% growth against last year.

Market containerboard production totaled 525,000 tons, 2% less than in the first nine months of 2011.

Paper production has gained 5%, reaching 179,000 tons.

OAO Ilim Gofra, corrugated box business of Ilim Group in the Leningrad Oblast, increased its production volumes by 4.5% to reach 94,248,000 square meters of corrugated products.

Over the first three quarters of 2012, Ilim Group’s Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk Mills (Irkutsk Oblast) manufactured 1,099,000 tons of pulp and paper products. As compared to the January-September 2011, production output remained flat.

This includes 933,000 tons of market pulp, which is slightly better than the similar period performance in the previous year.

Market containerboard production totaled 166,000 tons, which is 5% below the first nine months of 2011. Decrease in production output is due to market demand for reduced basis weight board, which leads to output decrease in terms of tons produced.

Pulp cooking volumes have not changed significantly and amounted to 1,194,000 tons.

Ilim Group's harvesting operations in Siberia have increased by 6% as compared to the similar period in 2011 to reach 5,005 thousand cubic meters.

A new automated process control system has been introduced at the Ust-Ilimsk Branch of Ilim Group. The system was installed in the cooking and bleaching shops of the Branch's Pulp Line 1. Total investment cost is USD 1.5 million.

The goal of installing the new process control system by Yokogawa (Japan) is to replace the obsolete ABB system. This will increase the production output at PL-1, and improve the cooking, washing and bleaching processes. Moreover, the new system will help reduce the consumption of chemicals and pure cold water and decrease the environmental impact on the Angara River.

The new process control system in PL-1 will allow the Mill to control all production processes according to unified algorithms. This will significantly improve the manufacturing performance indicators and quality of the product.

The new Yokogawa automated process control system was installed as part of Ilim Group's investment project aimed at upgrading the washing area in Pulp Line 1. The upgrade project will also include replacement of the old liquor presses and improvement of the washing process flow.

Metso will supply the main components for the coated woodfree paper line’s off-machine coater at the Koryazhma Branch mill of Ilim Group in Koryazhma, Russia. The start-up of the PM 7 off-machine coater is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013. The value of the order is approximately EUR 20 million.

Metso’s off-machine coater will be 4-stage, 2-sides, and the delivery will include a ValSizer coating station, an OptiSoft Gloss calender, two energy efficient high-drying-capacity PowerDry Plus gas dryers and a WinDrum winder. The Metso DNA automation system will comprise quality controls, process controls and machine condition monitoring, as well as electric drive and machine controls for the coater and the winder. Metso’s supply will also include a coating color kitchen with ultrafiltration and a StreamLine C roll handling and wrapping machine, serving both the PM 7 paper machine and the coater. The PM 7 will produce uncoated and coated woodfree paper in the basis weight range of 60 to 170 g/m2.

Ilim Group is a leading Russian pulp and paper producer, headquartered in St. Petersburg. The strategic partner of Ilim Group is International Paper, a global leader in the paper and packaging industry. The total annual pulp and paper production volume of Ilim Group is more than 2.3 million tonnes. Ilim Group employs over 20,000 people.

Ilim Group obtained consent from the Main State Expert Review Board to upgrade its Bratsk Mill. The project envisions the construction of a new cutting edge pulp cooking, washing and bleaching line, installation of a pulp dryer, new recovery and bark boilers, addition of a new woodyard and implementation of a number of other infrastructure-related projects. Annual capacity of the new fiberline will amount to 720,000 tons of bleached softwood market pulp.

The MSERB consent means that all process, technical and environmental solutions that are going to be used to implement the project fully comply with the Russian law.

The project approved by Ilim Group’s Board of Directors in April 2010 provides for complete modernization of the production facility with the best available technologies. After the project is completed, total pulp output in Bratsk will exceed 1 million tons. This will turn the Bratsk Mill into one of the world’s largest and most advanced softwood pulp manufacturers. The Mill’s products will be primarily targeted at the Chinese market.

OJSC Ilim Group received a multi-site FSC Forest Management Certificate, which also applies to the Group’s harvesting operations in Siberia (the Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk District Branches). This FSC Certificate covers that largest area of certified forest in Russia and the second largest in the world, 3.7 million hectares.

The new Certificate has replaced the two former FSC certificates, previously issued to Ilim Group’s logging companies, OOO IlimSibLes and ZAO ULiL. At present, OOO IlimSeverLes, the Group’s harvesting company in Koryazhma, has a separate certificate covering an area of 1.5 million hectares.

This means that the total area of certified forests of OJSC Ilim Group now exceeds 5.1 million hectares. Ilim Group is Russia’s largest company conducting its harvesting operations in accordance with the FSC international forest certification system.

"We at Ilim Group take our environmental obligations seriously. We make every effort to bring the principles of sustainable forestry into practice. FSC certification is a reflection of our environmental commitments," Mr. Paul Herbert, CEO of Ilim Group comments on the receipt of the Certificate. Earlier on, in 2009, Ilim Group received a multi-site Chain of Custody Certificate which covers three of the Company’s Branches: Koryazhma, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk.

Mr. Zakhar Smushkin, Board Chairman of Ilim Group, spoke at a plenary session of the Baikal Economic Forum in Irkutsk. His presentation was dedicated to investments into the forest products industry and ways to improve efficiency in using forest resources.

According to Mr. Smushkin, Ilim Group has already invested more than USD 130 million in purchasing high-performance harvesting, wood hauling, road construction and auxiliary equipment in Siberia, as well as in the construction of forest roads. These investments resulted in doubled production per unit of equipment, a 20% reduction in wood costs, and an increased output of saw logs. Moreover, working conditions in the forest were brought in compliance with the modern-day requirements.

The Company is currently implementing an investment project to install a new fiber line in Bratsk with the total amount of investments being USD 670 million. Ilim Group’s aggregate investments in the Irkutsk Oblast will exceed USD 860 million.

The Chairman of the Board has also covered some of the major issues the Company encountered while implementing this project, including lack of sufficiently experienced construction and installation companies in the region, as well as the need to engage additional workforce, since the peak phase of the project will require up to 1,500 people.

In the area of forest management, apart from the poor road infrastructure, Mr. Smushkin has stressed the issue of low yield of wood from a unit of timberland as compared with the industrially developed countries. A possible solution to the issues mentioned above would be to provide major forest products companies with the right to organize special-purpose harvesting operations on the leased timberland plots. This would allow them to increase harvesting volumes without leasing additional timberland plots, reduce harvesting and hauling costs, and improve forest regeneration quality. In 2010, Ilim Group launched a pilot project to introduce this concept in one of the forestries of the Irkutsk Oblast.

About Ilim Group
Ilim Group was registered in St. Petersburg on September 27, 2006. In 2007, the Group was joined by Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill, Bratsk Pulp and Containerboard Mill and Ust-Ilimsk Pulp and Paper Mill as the mills were converted to a single share. On July 2 Ilim Group started its activities as a unified company.
Production assets of the Group are structured on the production and geographical basis and include the following business units: “Ilim West” (North-Western Pulp and Paper Production), “Ilim East” (Siberian Pulp and Paper Production) and Corrugated Box business.
Business unit Ilim West includes Koryazhma Branch of Ilim Group (Arkhangelsk region), as well as timber suppliers and regional service companies in Arkhangelsk region.
Business unit Ilim East includes Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk Branches of Ilim Group, as well as regional logging companies and service companies.
Corrugated Packaging business unit includes 2 corrugated plants in Leningrad Region.
The company also includes centralized service providers to the Group’s branches and subsidiaries.