One of the world’s most advanced recycled paper mills is to be built in the UK by Spanish paper and packaging group SAICA at Partington Wharfside, near Manchester. Construction will commence ‘early in 2010’ and the start-up is scheduled for February 2012. The development will create up to 200 new jobs directly and indirectly at the plant and many more during the construction period.
The £290 million investment brings family owned SAICA’s committed and planned spend in the UK to over £470 million since 2007, when the company acquired International Paper’s Packaging business in the UK and Ireland.
When fully operational approximately 400,000 tonne/year of 100% recycled paper (containerboard) will be produced at Partington, from recovered paper, to be used in the manufacture of recycled corrugated boxes. Paper Machine 11, a proposed state of the art, 7.5m wide line, will be the heart of the plant, operating at speeds of up to 1,500m/min. It will produce top quality, high performance, lightweight containerboard in the 75-125g/m2 range.
The new mill will help to divert the export of some 450,000 tonne/year of used paper by recycling it within the UK. This will also significantly reduce the containerboard imports coming from Europe and cut the associated CO2 emissions.
SAICA has designed the new mill to be fully integrated, including a dedicated combined heat and power (CHP) station to generate clean energy, as well as an advanced effluent treatment plant.
Group president Eduardo Aragües says: “This huge investment, in the current economic climate, is the best message SAICA can send to its UK customers, to whom we are fully devoted and with which we are establishing a long term partnership.”
UK Government business secretary Lord Mandelson welcomed the announcement of the plans to begin construction of the paper mill. "This shows great confidence in our economic future and has all the right ingredients. It is a long term commitment in environmental technology which will be central to the UK's growth strategy."
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