Spain's corrugated giant to invest $800 million over next five years in US market expansion

Recently, the Spanish papermaking and packaging group Saica is preparing to expand further in the US market. The company announced that it will invest 800 million US dollars over the next five years to expand its business. According to the company, the money will be used for "strategic acquisitions or new plant construction." Saica is currently building its first production base in the United States: a corrugated plant in Hamilton, Ohio, scheduled to open in early 2022. Saica US said it will initially create 64 jobs.

Ramon Alejandro, president of the Saica Group, said: "The road to the US market has not been smooth, but we firmly believe that we can offer products that make us stand out in a highly competitive market. We believe that our extensive knowledge of low-grammage recycled paper production and the growing demand for cartons make this the best time for us to expand in the US market."

Germany's Progroup Group has also not stopped expanding; the company has confirmed that it is starting preparations for the construction of the PW15 secondary plant, which will be built near Petersberg and Hochspeyer (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). From the second quarter of 2023, up to 500 million square metres of corrugated board are expected to be produced here each year. The plant will create about 60 new jobs and cover about 28,000 square metres. The company's investment in its new building exceeds 90 million euros, and it will continue to pursue its growth strategy.

The facility will be built next to the plant of packaging manufacturer G&G Preisser. "The proximity to G&G Preisser was a major factor in choosing this location," said Maximilian Heindl, chief development officer and deputy CEO of Progroup. "By interlinking our logistics and production processes, we see great potential for more sustainable and more efficient operations."

The cooperation between the two companies will create a new packaging park on site, and the neighbouring secondary plant will receive corrugated board from Progroup just in time via direct logistics. The new PW15 plant will produce almost all commonly used grades of corrugated board. The planned production speed is 400 m/min with a working width of 3.35 metres. The line is designed to produce three-layer and five-layer Next Board? corrugated board, with all combinations available in B, C, E and F flutes and smaller grammages.

In the long term, Progroup is working towards carbon-neutral recycling. To this end, the company is investing about 2 million euros at its new site in state-of-the-art resource-saving production methods. For example, Progroup plans to use an efficient third-generation system. This will save the use of fossil fuels while reducing CO2 emissions through efficient energy use.

The building envelope of PW15 will meet high energy standards to reduce heating energy in winter and energy required for cooling in summer. There will also be air-conditioning units equipped with efficient heat recovery systems and modern air circulation concepts. Through these investments in sustainable, resource-saving production, the new plant will seamlessly continue the company's green high-tech strategy.

When fully up and running, production at the new plant will use one of the highest levels of automation in the industry. This will be achieved through modern production facilities, fully automated transport systems, and high-bay warehouse technology and process control systems that link everything together. "With PW15, Progroup will not only strengthen the Palatinate region's position as a business location, but also expand its position in the markets of northern France and southern Germany," said Jürgen Heindl, CEO of Progroup. "We have always pursued our growth strategy so that we can offer customers highly reliable supply and impressive product quality while also attracting new customer groups."

Also headquartered in Germany, the Klingele Paper and Packaging Group continues to expand in West Africa; the group recently built a new secondary plant near Dakar, Senegal. Production is expected to start in summer 2022, initially creating about 45 jobs. Klingele's efforts in this regard have received financial support from the German development finance institution (DEG). Total investment is expected to be about 7.5 million euros, of which 5 million euros comes from DEG.

Klingele has been operating in Mauritania since 2013 and now has two production facilities there, focusing on packaging for the fishing sector and industrial customers. Soon, the Diamniadio industrial zone near Dakar's new port will be home to a new plant with two production lines, where corrugated board from Klingele's Tenerife-based subsidiary Klingele Embalajes Canarias will be converted into carton packaging.

At present the production hall has already been built. In the first half of 2022, Klingele will install a four-colour box-making machine, a three-colour Ward rotary die-cutter and five Boix lid-and-base machines. The products will be used mainly for agriculture as well as the fishing and broader food sectors. The plant's initial capacity is 4,000 tonnes. As output grows, expansion of the plant is already being planned. Klingele's long-term goal is to cover the West African market from Morocco to Gabon.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378300.html