Jiangmen Will Be No Paper Tiger when Singapore's RGM Completes $1.98 Billion Mill

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The production of paper and office stationery goes hand in hand with economic and industrial expansion. The idea that electronic communications and screen based reporting would lead to the 'paperless office' seems about as outdated as vinyl disks. With double digit growth figures in major sectors, China's Guangdong Province, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, is set to add to its position as China's largest printing base and user of paper products.

Construction has started on a $1.98 million paper mill project at Jiangmen, in the booming Pearl River Delta region. The project being undertaken by RGM International of Singapore is the second largest investment project in the province to date and is sited adjacent to Shell's (LSE:SHL) (London, UK) $4 billion petrochemical project in Huizhou (Plant 1035155).

The first $680 million, 447-hectare phase of the Asia-Pacific Paper Industrial project will be completed in two years. It will produce more than 450,000 tons of office paper annually with a value of $325 million.

The $1.3 billion second phase, covering a further 267 hectares will have two production lines. One will have an annual production capacity of 550,000 tons of high-grade paper, and the other with the production capacity for 700,000 tons of wood pulp per annum.

When completed the plant will contribute an annual output value of $723 million to the region's economy and boost Jiangmen's position as the capital of China's paper industry and Asia's largest production base of office stationery and paper.

In the first phase of operations, RGM will ship the majority of the pulp needed for the mill from Indonesia, where the company owns the world's largest pulp mill with a combined capacity of more than two million tons per annum. Concurrently, it will establish a 200,000-hectare timber growing area in Guangdong province to ensure supply of pulp feedstock for the mill.

RGM will also construct a special port in Xinhui district that will accommodate 10,000-ton vessels. A water supply plant will be built as a supplementary facility to the mill.

RGM International is a diversified Asia-Pacific business group with group offices in Singapore, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia and Finland. It was founded in the 1970s and now has assets in excess of $6 billion and a workforce of over 56,0000. The group owns the Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper mill in Sumatra (as above), which, in addition to the two million tons of pulp and 400,000 tons of paper and stationery per annum, puts out 120,000 tons of rayon and other specialty fibers per annum. RGM has over 200,000 hectares of palm oil plantations and is the major shareholder in the Adaro coal mine in Kalimantan, Indonesia, with a production capacity of 20 million tons per annum. The group also has engineering, construction and infrastructure divisions.

As manager and guardian of significant tracts of the world's forests, rural and agricultural resources in sensitive areas, RGM says that it is committed to protect and preserve the natural environment.