TNPL to upgrade its Trichy unit with Valmet cooking, fiberline

The site, which has been in operation since 2016, is equipped with a multilayer board machine and churns out 2,00,000 tonnes of boards per year. The new pulp mill will have a capacity of 1,65,000tpa of bleached hardwood kraft pulp and the start-up is planned for the first quarter of 2021.

Headquartered in Finland, Valmet is a global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. The company said the value of the order will not be disclosed. However, an order with this scope of supply is usually valued in the range of Rs 156 to Rs234 crores.

Valmet has previously supplied two fiberlines based on hardwood and bagasse respectively to their unit-1, located in Kagithapuram in Karur.

SJ Varadarajan, general manager (projects), TNPL, said, “The unit-2 is a leading manufacturer of pulp and paper board in India. The new pulp mill with Valmet’s cooking and fiberline technology will further strengthen our ambition to maintain the leading position.”

Meanwhile, SVR Krishnan, executive director (operations) at TNPL, said, “The Valmet fiberline brings the latest technology to the TNPL unit-2 with thrust on water conservation and environment protection. This fiberline will go a long way in making the operations of our unit-2 profitable.”

Eva Engelfeldt, senior sales manager, fiber processing business unit, Valmet, said, “Valmet’s technology is proven to meet TNPL’s strict requirements for low water consumption and raw material efficiency, which have special importance in this region. Since the launch of our latest third generation continuous cooking system in late 2018, we have been well received by the market and this order is yet another acknowledgment of that.”

“This will be Valmet’s first modern reference in India for a continuous digester system, so we are proud and grateful to be a part of the project together with TNPL,” she added.