As per the company press note, "This is a virgin paper packaging plant and will have the capability to add about Rs 1,000 crore in revenues for the company in a full year of operation. The plant includes a 1.7 lakh tpa packaging material and 1.6 lakh tpa of pulp making capacity apart from boilers and related infrastructure."

The brand new board line is powered by a Valmet machine. The other components are supplied by CCL, AFT, Andritz, RunTech, Brunsweiler etc. The board line has capacity to produce top quality folding box board and solid bleached sulfate board. The new board machine features latest cutting edge technologies to produce value-added products and convert them into customer requirements because of a modern converting, finishing and warehousing facilities.

The new board machine will start commercial production from the next quarter. A new chemical pulping line and recovery island will also be commissioned in the same quarter. The new manufacturing plant located at Songadh near Surat was initially programmed to be commissioned by March-April 2021. It has been delayed by few months due to disruption caused during the Covid pandemic wave, where workers and technical experts were away. JK Paper conducted trials of the plant in the July-September quarter (second of this financial year).

HP Singhania, the vice chairman and managing director as well as AS Mehta, president and director of JK Paper congratulated the project team of JK Paper as well as the vendors, technology partners plus engineering consultants for “successfully starting up the new board line in extremely challenging times due to Covid interruptions, travel restrictions and remote commissioning of various equipments.”

JK Paper Q1 profit had grown manifold due to a consolidated net profit at Rs 104.22 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 on the back of higher sales and better realisation. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 660.75 crore as against Rs 469.24 crore in the year-ago period, JK Paper said in a regulatory filing.

"Higher volume with better realisations across all segments resulted in improved performance during the quarter despite the impact of the second-wave of the Covid-19 pandemic," Singhania said.

JK Paper said its performance on consolidated basis was also better in the quarter due to steady operational performance of Sirpur Paper Mills Ltd, a step-down subsidiary. The board has also approved an investment of Rs 150 crore for setting up a corrugated packaging plant, it said without sharing details.