Recently, a plant for the production of sulphated bleached pulp on the basis of the Svetlogorsk pulp and board plant with a capacity of 400,000 tons per year has been commissioned. The Chinese company, SAMCE, was the general contractor for the construction.

Representative of SAMCE Guo Zizie noted that the successful launch of the plant not only meets the Belarusian demand for high-quality bleached pulp, but also provides an annual foreign exchange income of about $ 400 million and a net profit of $ 150 million. 

Guo Zizie said that although Belarus has rich forest resources, however, they have not yet found effective use. "Annually a significant amount of untreated timber is exported from Belarus to Europe and other nearby countries, with more than 90,000 tons of sheet pulp for paper production imported from Russia and other countries," Guo Zizie said. "However, as the demand for paper products in China and other emerging markets has soared, the world paper industry is continuously expanding." According to him, the launch of the plant will solve the problem of employment of about 1 thousand local specialists.

The representative of CAMCE stressed that, thanks to a set of methods, a positive cycle is being implemented in practice: "the pulp industry feeds forestry, and the forestry stimulates the pulp industry" (wood planting funds are financed from the sale of pulp, and the resulting forest resources stimulate the development of the pulp industry), which not only does not have a negative influence on the environment of Belarus, but, on the contrary, will help improve the environmental situation.

The contract for the construction of the plant with the line for the production of sulphated bleached pulp was concluded in October 2010 between CAMCE and the Bellesbumprom concern under the OJSC Svetlogorsk Pulp and Paperboard Plant. Eximbank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China provided the Belarusian side with a loan of 85% of the value of the contract. Then the customer and SAMCE agreed to build a line for the production of viscose pulp and the supply of equipment for it, the total amount of the contract was $ 35 million. Thus, the total size of the project increased to $ 804 million.

According to Guo Zizie, the plant is one of the largest single facilities "on a turn-key basis" within the framework of cooperation between China and Belarus. The project in Svetlogorsk becomes the first major pulp mill built by the Chinese general contractor in Europe. 

Based on tut.by materials