Paper manufacturer Sappi has announced a 61 million Euro investment to upgrade its papermaking machine and turn it into the ‘world’s largest’ machine producing one-side coated and MGBK (Machine Glazed Bleached Kraft) speciality grades.
“This is the biggest investment that has been made at this 300-year-old mill in the past 20 years,” said Rosemarie Asquino, Sappi Europe’s sales and marketing director, specialities. “Not only will it expand our capacity for producing high-demand speciality packaging materials but it will reduce our environmental footprint and increase standards compliance.”
Asquino explains that the machine will be converted from the production of coated wood-free graphic arts grade papers to the production of a wide range of speciality papers. “In recent years there has been about a 6% decline in demand for graphic arts papers,” she adds. “At the same time, growth in demand for speciality packaging papers is expected to be as high a 3.2%. Sappi has a creative portfolio of speciality grades for which demand is increasing, and this project was designed to enable us to continue to meet that need.”
According to Asquino, with this rebuild, Sappi will add to its unmatched portfolio the capacity to produce higher volumes of a wide range of paper and packaging products including coated and uncoated papers for flexible packaging, premium SBS board for luxury boxes, topliner for high quality corrugated packaging, label papers for wet glue applications such as can and jar labels, banderols and wrappers, and  silicone-based papers for carriers for self-adhesive products such as plotter films and stickers.