Paper mill nears completion

Press, 11 January 1983, Page 18

Paper mill nears completion

The new Te Papapa mill owned by N.Z. Forest Products. Ltd. is scheduled to begin commercial production early this year, according to the managing director. N.Z.F.P.s Mr D. O. Walker. Commissioning trials at the $3O million mill began in December, and full commercial production should start about April, he said. A fourdrinier paper machine, one of the most technologically advanced machines in the country, had been installed and would use 100 per cent waste paper. N.Z.F.P. was New Zealand’s largest waste paper

user, and the new machine would take additional quantities of this material. An estimated 22,000 tonnes of waste paper a year collected from metropolitan Auckland would be recycled into corrugating paper for the packaging industry. Corrugating paper was subsequently “fluted” to form the inner ply for paperboard boxes for containers and for protective packaging pur- ■ poses for glass and other products, Mr Walker said. The use of waste paper in the new mill would replace wood pulp currently used for this purpose. Wood pulp was a saleable product in inter-

national trade. Escher Wyss GmbH, of Germany, one of the best known companies engaged in the manufacture of papermaking machinery, was the supplier of the machine and some of its staff have supervised the assembly in New Zealand. They would assist in commissioning trials.

It was planned to run the mill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, supplying a large part of the converting industry requirements of corrugating paper and improv-

ing service to the industry in Auckland, he said. About 65 staff would work at the mill, some of whom have transferred from Recycling Industries New- Zealand. Ltd. an N.Z.F.P. associate, which ceased operations in October, and from other activities in and around the Penrose mills.