Yunjing Forestry & Paper Plans 500,000-Tonne Bleached Chemical Pulp Line in Yunnan

Yunnan Yunjing Forestry & Paper Co., Ltd. plans to invest 6.059 billion yuan in a new bleached chemical pulp production line as part of a broader project to modernize and expand its forestry, pulp and paper operations in Yunnan Province.

Details of the project were disclosed on June 3 by the Pu'er Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment during the environmental review process for the company's green, low-carbon and intelligent transformation and upgrading program.

The proposed investment includes the construction of a 500,000-tonne-per-year bleached sulfate wood pulp production line and associated facilities at the company's existing site within Jinggu Industrial Park. Eucalyptus logs and wood chips will serve as the primary raw materials for pulp production.

According to project documents, the facility will employ continuous sulfate cooking, medium-consistency closed screening, two-stage oxygen delignification and three-stage elemental chlorine-free (ECF) bleaching technology using chlorine dioxide as the principal bleaching agent to produce eucalyptus chemical pulp.

Yunjing Forestry & Paper currently operates chemical pulp production lines with annual capacities of 100,000 tonnes and 160,000 tonnes, as well as a 30,000-tonne tissue paper line. The company is also developing a 60,000-tonne-per-year tissue paper project, of which 24,000 tonnes have already been completed.

Once the new project is commissioned, the company's total chemical pulp production capacity will increase to 760,000 tonnes per year. Of that volume, approximately 90,000 tonnes will be consumed internally for tissue paper production, while 670,000 tonnes will be converted into pulp boards for external sales.

The project will include a raw material preparation facility, pulping and pulp board workshops, alkali recovery systems, biomass gasification and boiler units, chlorine dioxide and hydrogen peroxide production facilities, a wastewater treatment plant, oxygen production systems and related utility infrastructure.

Construction is scheduled to begin after environmental impact assessment approval, with a planned start date of July 2026. The project is expected to take 36 months to complete, with commercial operations targeted for July 2029.