Sun Paper successfully turned on its 3rd SBS board machine at its paper and board production center in Guangxi on December 4th. Designed and built by Voith, Germany, the machine has a trim width of 8.8 meters and is designed to run at 1,300m/min. Once in full operation, it may produce 1 million metric tons of SBS board a year. Earlier, Sun Paper already began commercial runs of a 900,000/mtpy SBS board machine. By now, the company’s SBS board capacity has reached 2.5 million/mtpy. Surpassing Chenming Paper and closely following APP (including Bohui), Sun Paper is now the 2nd largest SBS board producer in China.

Also in Guangxi, APP(Guangxi)'s 900,000/mtpy SBS board machine under the Phase II Construction Plan successfully began its trial runs on December 9th, after final commissioning. Designed and built by Valmet, Finland, the machine has a trim width of 8.1 meters and at 1,450 m/min. velocity. Soon after the commercial runs of this machine, APP(Guangxi) will install another sister machine, which will expand the company’s SBS board capacity in its Guangxi production base to 1.8 million/mtpy by 2022.

Guangxi was traditionally considered as a frontier province of the country and produced only 2.5 million metric tons of paper and board in 2019, which only accounted for 2.3% of China's total paper and board output of the year. Today, however, the province has become a new hot spot of paper and board investment in the country. For SBS board alone, over 6 million/mtpy of new capacity will settle in Guangxi, among the 12.65 million/mtpy announced expansion between 2021 and 2025 in China. With its abundant natural resources, including forest and water sources, seaports, and an increasingly upgraded road and rail transportation system, Guangxi is now favored by investors, and it is emerging as the largest SBS board production hub in the country.