World record tissue machine is running in China.

In many areas, China has begun to follow hard on the heels of Western industrial nations, with some companies now already in the fast lane. One example is Chinese sanitary paper producer Gold Hong Ye, where the world's fastest tissue machine is running.

China is a promising market in more than one respect. Its huge population--nearing 1.3 billion--and strong economic growth will lead to rapid expansion in the tissue market.

Annual growth rates for tissue consumption of up to 14% have brought China to the forefront of the global tissue market. Since the early 1990s, Chinese tissue production has increased five-fold. China is second to the United States in production and consumption even though per capita Chinese consumption is only 2.1 kg per year. U.S. per capita consumption is 24 kg while Western European countries average 13.6 kg.

Since household and sanitary paper consumption is closely linked to the standard of living, per capita consumption in the well-to-do coastal regions--especially in and around Shanghai and Beijing--is considerably higher (up to 7.5 kg). In the poorer regions in southwest and northwest China, per capita consumption is 1 kg and less.

The Chinese tissue market is characterized by small companies producing lower-end tissue grades. There are more than 800 producers of tissue paper that dominate their local markets since transport costs are high. However, following the SARS epidemic, the trend is to buy tissue products from larger producers that are expected to operate their processes under more hygienic conditions.

Several large domestic companies specialize in high-grade tissue production that competes well with European tissue mills in terms of capacity and product quality. Austrian tissue machine supplier Andritz has played a key role in this high-end segment. The six machines that Andritz has supplied to China since 1998 are among the top 15 (in terms of production capacity) operated by the Chinese tissue industry today.

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The leader in the Chinese tissue market is Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a member of Indonesian Sinar Mas Group, and its Gold Hong Ye Paper tissue mill. APP's facility in Suzhou was founded in 1996. In 1998-'99, Andritz installed two 5.6 meter wide tissue machines at the Suzhou mill, each of which has a capacity of 60,000 metric tons/yr.

Y.T. Hsu, the mill's head of production wants to get the most from these two production lines so "his" machines are the best in the world. The first major step was taken in September 2002 during a planned shutdown aimed at optimizing tissue machine #2 (TM2). After re-starting the machine, the mill achieved the first speed record--2020 m/min producing 13.8 gsm facial tissue. This high-speed operation catapulted Gold Hong Ye to second place on the international speed list for tissue production. First place at that time was a machine running at 2050 m/min.

During the optimization, Andritz installed the new PrimePickup[TM] device in the Former to create a more homogeneous sheet. This brought about major improvements in machine runnability and paper quality. The PrimePickup[TM] was developed in close cooperation with Gold Hong Ye.

With its own PrimePickup[TM] in place. TM1 soon caught up. Just a month later, it ran at 2000 m/min producing higher basis weight tissue (17.5 gsm toilet tissue).

But this was not good enough for Y.T. Hsu and his team. The speed of the two tissue machines was carefully raised step-by-step without sacrificing efficiency or product quality. In January 2004, TM2 broke the world record for CrescentFormer machines, reaching 2100 m/min. This speed was held for a full five days while producing facial tissue of 13.2 gsm. After this, operators slowed the machine for a grade change.

Later, the mill ran TM2 at the record speed several times, depending on the tissue produced. During the same period, TM1 also reached a top speed of 2060 m/min, producing 17.5-gsm toilet paper.

REGINA EDELMAYER, ANDRITZ

About the author: Regina Edelmayer is manager of marketing and communications, tissue machines for Andritz, Graz, Austria.