Day 5 – The First Glimpse of Chinese Paper Mills

May 19, 2017

We left the hotel in Nanjing early in the morning (around 8:30) heading towards the city of Zhengjiang. Zhengjiang is located ~80 km away from Nanjing on the banks of the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River starts in the icy mountains near the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and flows 6,300 miles to the East China Sea just north of Shanghai. The city of Zhengjiang is considered a small city by Chinese standards, but has a population of approximately three million people. For comparison, the population of Raleigh is approximately 450,000 people. The city started out as an agricultural area and is originally famous for the local rice farming and fishing trade. It was an odd juxtaposition to see the mill set against the quiet backdrop of the city.

Gold East Paper Mill

The Gold East Paper Mill was established in 1997. Originally, it was owned by an Indonesian corporation.  The mill has three machines producing coated freesheet. For reference, freesheet refers to no use of mechanically separated pulp in the final product. The first two paper machines have off machine coaters. The third paper machine is more similar to the ones used in America, having an in-line coater. On this particular day, we toured the number third paper machine, mentioned above. This machine became operational in 2005 and produces paper at a rate of 3,200 tons per day. The production speed of the machine is a blistering 1,800 meters per minute. For those of us not adapted to the metric system, that is approximately 5,900 feet per minute or 67 miles per hour. The grade being made that day was art paper having a basis weight of 70 – 128 grams per square meter. Though the machines were cool, the biggest attractor of the day was the nature preserve.

In an effort to show the effectiveness of the treatment of the paper mills effluent water to the Yangtze River, a preserve was built on site. The preserve was situated alongside a small pond filled with treated effluent. Lining the pond was local trees and other vegetation. In the middle of the pond was a man-made island with a traditional Chinese gazebo connected by two stone walkways to the shore. The pond was filled with Koi Fish and various other aquatic fauna and flora in seemingly healthy conditions. On one side of the pond were pens that housed exotic animals such as peacocks, a bright red bird, and another bird that looked similar to a turkey. It was a quant place to relax, until you noticed that you could see some of the process equipment over the tree line.

YongfengYu (YFY) Paper Mill

After touring the Gold East Paper Mill and eating lunch, we boarded the bus once again and headed to Yangzhou. Located in Yangzhou is the YongfengYu (YFY) Paper Mill. The mill was originally established in 2003 and produces linerboard and corrugated medium (think cardboard boxes). The raw material for the paper is 95% old corrugated containers, which is sourced partially from China and America. The mill has three paper machines producing a combined rate of 2,200 tons per day. The number one, number two, and number three paper machines have speeds of 1600, 2300, and 3600 feet per minute,respectively. The number one machine produces 1 ply linerboard, while the number two and three machines produce 3 ply linerboard. Each “jumbo roll”, or finished reel of paper, weighs in at an astounding 50 tons.  One of the most shocking things of the day was the cleanliness of both paper mills.  We say multiple people that had the sole job of cleaning. Following the  tour, we finished the day with an extravagant dinner provided by the folks at YFY.

by guest blogger Justin Coor & Andrew Edwards