Ограничения на закупку зарубежной бумаги, сокращение импорта целлюлозы в Китае: наступает ли «весна» для производства бумаги из бамбуковой целлюлозы в Сычуани?

At exactly 9:00 on October 9, the green signal light in the warehouse blinked twice, and Si Kailin hurriedly put away the fried dough stick he had only half eaten. He had already spent an hour on this simple breakfast. "I'm afraid I'll have to save it for lunch!"

Si Kailin is a forklift driver in the production workshop of Sichuan Fengsheng Paper Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fengsheng Paper"). His main task is to move base paper from the warehouse to the production workshop 200 metres away. Since June, this busy state has not stopped.

"We have been producing at full capacity for several months." Shen Qunlin, administrative director of Fengsheng Paper, said that the production workshop of Fengsheng Paper, with an annual output of 150,000 tonnes of bamboo pulp and 180,000 tonnes of paper, ranks among the very best in Sichuan and even nationwide. To some extent, this place is a barometer of the national bamboo pulp paper industry.

It is not just Fengsheng Paper. Across Sichuan, bamboo pulp papermaking enterprises are all running at full capacity. What is driving this? The wind is favourable—can Sichuan enterprises take off with it?

Imports of wood pulp and waste paper pulp have long been restricted; Sichuan has relatively good resource advantages and an industrial base, with considerable potential

Sichuan enterprises are stepping up investment, the primary driver being global market supply falling short of demand.

Affected by factors such as pandemic prevention and control, shortages of raw material supply, and rising transport prices and scheduling difficulties, since the start of the year toilet paper supply in European and American countries has become increasingly tight. On September 23, Costco, the largest membership warehouse chain in the United States, once again announced purchase limits on toilet paper. In Canada, some supermarket chains have introduced similar policies. The wave of purchase limits on toilet paper and other paper has spread across European and American countries.

At the same time, the supply of papermaking raw materials has fluctuated greatly.

China's papermaking virgin pulp comes mainly from three sources: wood pulp, waste paper pulp and bamboo pulp. Since the implementation of the Natural Forest Protection Programme in 1998, China's paper industry has become increasingly dependent on imported wood pulp year by year; last year imported wood pulp provided 25% of raw materials. But affected by the pandemic and international emission reduction, since last year major wood pulp exporting countries have cut output one after another, and prices have climbed rapidly. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in August this year China's pulp imports (mainly wood pulp) fell 3.5% year on year while import value rose 31.5%. Another type of virgin pulp, waste paper pulp, provides 35% of raw material sources, but the implementation of the ban on "foreign waste" imports has sharply reduced it. "Now only a few raw materials such as sorted waste paper can still come in; others are all barred." A person in charge at Chengdu Customs explained that waste paper scraps and waste paperboard have both been listed as strictly prohibited imports in the new edition of the "Catalogue of Imported Waste Management."

"This (the restriction on wood pulp and waste paper pulp imports) is long term." Fan Moubin, chairman of the Sichuan Papermaking Society and executive vice chairman of the Sichuan Paper Industry Association, bases this on the view that, given the accelerating decarbonization efforts internationally and domestically and the tightening trend of environmental protection policies, the gap in wood pulp and waste paper pulp cannot be completely resolved in the short term.

Against this backdrop, Sichuan's bamboo pulp papermaking has met a new industry opportunity.

Resource advantages and an industrial base are the keywords in the words of Chen Hongquan, director of the Industry Division of the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau. Chen Hongquan said Sichuan now has more than 18 million mu of bamboo forest, ranking first in the country. Of this, two thirds can be used for harvesting and processing, and the theoretical annual bamboo pulp volume can reach 3 million tonnes, while existing capacity is less than 1.2 million tonnes, so the potential is considerable.

Sichuan's bamboo pulp papermaking industry, which started in 1990, has already formed an industrial cluster with 14 leading enterprises as the main body, accumulating a large amount of original technology and processes. According to statistics from the Sichuan Paper Industry Association, last year our province's bamboo pulp processing capacity already accounted for more than 60% of the national total.

Besides resource advantages and a good industrial base, policy has also opened the door for bamboo pulp papermaking.

"Lower carbon, easier to harvest." Fei Shimin, vice president of the Provincial Academy of Forestry, said that compared with trees whose growth cycle is easily twenty or thirty years, bamboo forests—with a growth cycle of only three or four years and no need for replanting—better fit the low-carbon consumption orientation of international and domestic markets. Moreover, compared with trees facing many policy restrictions such as regional harvesting quotas, harvesting permit processing and post-harvest ecological restoration of the land, bamboo harvesting does not require approval at every level.

Rising bamboo timber prices narrow profits, and the sword of environmental protection and energy consumption is too much for "small" Sichuan enterprises

But many heads of bamboo pulp papermaking enterprises in Sichuan cannot be happy.

The first factor is the current cut-throat competition in the industry.

"Can we raise prices together?" In late September, several heads of bamboo pulp papermaking enterprises in Sichuan called Fan Moubin one after another, on the topic of finding "allies" to raise prices together. Rising imported wood pulp prices drove up raw materials across the whole industry, causing processing enterprises' profits to narrow continuously; yet within the bamboo pulp papermaking industry a "price war" was underway, and many enterprises could no longer hold out. Previously these enterprises lowered ex-works prices of finished paper in order to win orders, not expecting bamboo pulp to rise so high.

Since the start of this year, the highest purchase price of bamboo timber in some parts of Sichuan has approached the 1,000 yuan per tonne mark, while the selling price of bamboo pulp has risen to 3,500-4,000 yuan per tonne, both setting new highs. Correspondingly, many manufacturers' ex-works base paper prices are only 5,500 yuan per tonne, only a modest increase over previous years. Against this backdrop, after deducting costs such as bamboo pulp transport, processing and wastewater treatment, the processing profit per tonne of paper is at most a few hundred yuan. A survey by the Sichuan Paper Industry Association shows that some enterprises have shown early signs of losses.

Besides current industry competition, strict environmental protection and energy consumption requirements have always troubled the whole bamboo pulp papermaking industry.

"If things had gone smoothly, we would already have started production." On October 9, facing wasteland covered with weeds, Zhao Lei, head of a bamboo pulp papermaking enterprise in Sichuan, was full of frustration. Three years ago the enterprise selected a bamboo-forest-rich area in southern Sichuan to build a bamboo pulp papermaking production line, but the project got stuck at the environmental impact assessment stage.

Another head of a bamboo pulp papermaking enterprise in Sichuan showed the bill: last year investment in pollutant treatment accounted for 30% of total cost expenditure.

A person in charge of a large bamboo pulp papermaking enterprise in southern Sichuan revealed that a capacity expansion project they launched in recent years had a quota obtained only after local authorities shut down several other capacity projects. "It will be absolutely impossible to add such a large capacity again in the future."

"The problem lies in the small scale of Sichuan enterprises." Fei Shimin said that after years of exploration, pollutant treatment technology for bamboo pulp papermaking has matured. But the huge upfront investment in equipment and facilities leaves enterprises unable to manage it. It is understood that a bamboo pulp production line with an annual output of 100,000 tonnes requires a one-off pollution treatment investment of at least 200 million yuan, already close to the investment in building the production line itself.

Promoting standardization of bamboo forest bases and product differentiation, and cultivating leading enterprises to break through the environmental "high-voltage line"

How can the bamboo pulp papermaking industry escape its current predicament?

The first move is to advance diversified R&D of end products.

"Cut-throat competition is due to product homogenization." Fan Moubin said that at present Sichuan has 350 household paper processing enterprises using various types of bamboo pulp as raw material, but most are concentrated in the traditional toilet paper production field.

The way to break this situation is product differentiation.

On October 5, at Huajiazui, Xilong Town, Qingshen County, Meishan, the construction site was covered with green dust nets, enclosed by plastic sheeting walls marking the countdown to completion, and cranes and excavators had not "taken a holiday" either. This is the Bamboo Park project being built by Sichuan Huanlong New Materials Co., Ltd. Liu Weizhe, general manager of production and operations at Huanlong New Materials, said that according to the plan the park will target European, American and Japanese markets, using bamboo fiber to develop high-end household paper rather than only producing ordinary toilet paper.

Fengsheng Paper's thinking is similar. "Previously our main products were bamboo pulp and base paper; now it is more than that." Shen Qunlin said that in April this year the company completed and put into operation Phase I of its slitting and processing project, adding 100,000 tonnes a year of slitting and processing capacity, for example cutting large bundles of base paper into napkins.

The second move is to cut costs.

"The rise in bamboo raw material prices is not entirely driven by wood pulp." In the view of a person in charge at the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, the difficulty of harvesting caused by the low level of bamboo forest base construction is a major cause of rising bamboo pulp prices.

Li Hu, a farmer in Baijie Town, Naxi District, Luzhou City, said that a local adult labourer can harvest only 0.6 tonnes of bamboo per day, selling for just over 500 yuan; after deducting wages of 230 yuan per person per day, 15 yuan for meals, 30 yuan for bamboo transport, 200 yuan for planting and management (including forest land transfer fees) and other expenses (insurance for harvesting workers), little profit remains.

This has also led to a strange phenomenon: the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau estimates that bamboo pulp and bamboo timber prices have climbed steadily this year, yet more than 60% of bamboo forest bases across the province have no one harvesting them.

Many industry insiders call for integrating the resources of bamboo pulp papermaking enterprises in Sichuan at the provincial level and advancing the standardized construction of bamboo forest bases, to "stop internal friction and cut costs together."

For example, Liu Weizhe said that in the 20,000-mu bamboo forest base in Qingshen, Meishan, they guided rational interplanting, replacement with new varieties and scientific fertilization, basically achieving mechanized harvesting, and bamboo timber yield per mu increased from 1 tonne to more than 3 tonnes.

The third move is to break through the "high-voltage line" of environmental protection and energy consumption.

"Leave some high-energy-consumption, high-pollution links to leading enterprises to handle." A person in charge at the Provincial Paper Industry Association said that existing resources should be integrated to cultivate leading enterprises and rationally distribute bamboo pulp processing capacity in the main producing areas, and that appropriate subsidies should be given for the construction of environmental protection facilities.

Some enterprises have found a new path of "circular" production. "Through chemical reaction we extract and recover the alkali in black liquor, and burn it in the boiler together with bamboo chips to produce steam for biomass power generation. The project is designed to burn 1,000 tonnes of black liquor solids per day, with a maximum generating capacity of about 24,000 kWh, basically meeting self-use electricity needs," Liu Weizhe said.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378430.html