ND Paper, a subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper, has announced an investment of $300m in its mills in Wisconsin and Maine in the US.
Image: ND Paper will invest $300m to advance US pulp and paper mills. Photo: courtesy of virag virag / FreeImages.
ND Paper will complete the investment in the next two years, which will help further enhance the long-term sustainability of the facilities.
In June this year, Nine Dragons completed the acquisition of two pulp and paper mills located in Rumford of Maine and Biron of Wisconsin.
The company has launched multi-faceted investment strategy to diversify the US mills’ product mix, increase overall production capacity and improve viability for next generations.
The projects will help the company to create 77 additional jobs in both states.
ND Paper’ investment at Rumford mill will help retain the jobs of the current 650 employees, while enhancements will allow to create additional 50 jobs in the next two years.
The firm will provide $111m for two significant projects at Rumford division. The projects include construction of a greenfield recycled pulp facility, which will help to add around 1,200 air dried metric tonnes per day (admtpd) to the manufacturing capacity.
The installation of shoe press on the R15 paper machine will enable to increase the machine’s production capacity by around 20%.
Maine governor Paul LePage said: “This $111 million investment will lead to the creation of 50 new jobs, and is a great example of ND Paper’s commitment to improving the overall competitiveness and stability of the Rumford mill.”
In Wisconsin, the firm will commission various major projects at Biron division, with an investment of around $189m.
The investment will help retain 350 jobs at the facility, and enhancement will create 27 additional jobs.
Biron’s planned projects include conversion of the B25 paper machine to containerboard products and construction of a two-line greenfield recycled pulp facility to add around 1,900 admtpd of manufacturing capacity.
The investment will also be used for the development of water treatment and fiber recovery plant, package boiler to provide energy, storage facilities for raw materials and finished good warehouse.
ND Paper CEO Ken Liu said: “While strongly supporting our global fiber strategy, this suite of projects also dramatically improves the sustainability of these historic mills.
“Not only are we developing a U.S.-based containerboard business, we’re also reinforcing our commitment to existing printing and writing and specialty customers with world-class, cost-competitive assets.”