Being the traditional outlet to the outside world and the pioneer to open up for economic reforms in China's modern history, Guangdong Province upholds its leading position in the country's paper industry. Latest data from China National Statistics Bureau (CNSB) showed paper and board output of the Province rose to 24.36 million/mt in 2020, up +9.58% from the previous year and keeping its top producer position of the country's paper industry in a year when the industry suffered from the attacks of the pandemic and many provinces, including some of the traditionally strong performers such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, ended up in negative results.

Having quickly recovered from the assault of the pandemic and continued its important contribution to the growth of the national economy, Guangdong also maintains its attractiveness to investors, including those in the pulp and paper fields. At an "Economic Cooperation & Development Forum" held in early March 2021, Guangdong announced to have signed contracts or letters of intent totaling RMB300 billion, which includes the RMB20 billion funding from Asia SYMBOL (Guangdong) to build a paper and non-woven project in Jiangmen City. Starting construction in November 2020 and scheduling for commercial runs in 2022, the project will be able to produce 900,000/mtpy of fine paper as well as non-woven cloth and other products.

By now, not only the top-three pulp and paper producers – Nine Dragons, Lee & Man and Shanying Paper – have their large production complexes in the province, but also a few other fast-growing pulp and paper producers, either headquartered locally or in other parts of China, are expanding their presence in the province. It is expected that Guangdong’s leadership position in China's paper industry will stay on in the next 5 years at least, regardless of the possible changes of others in the echelon of top-5 producers.