Progroup AG invests €375 million at its Sandersdorf-Brehna site.
One of the world‘s most modern paper factories, with an annual capacity of 750,000 tonnes, is taking shape in the German
state of Saxony-Anhalt. The ground-breaking ceremony at the Sandersdorf-Brehna site near Bitterfeld took place on Friday. The plant owner and operator is the Landau (Rhineland Palatinate) based Progroup AG and at Sandersdorf-
Brehna the group is now building its third paper factory. That will increase its total annual production of container board to 1.85 million tonnes. With an overall investment of €375 million the new project will create 140 jobs directly and up to a
further 350 jobs indirectly.
Jürgen Heindl, CEO and Chairman of Progroup AG, emphasises: "We are systematically pursuing our Green Hightech Philosophy with this project; and with the environment at the forefront of our minds we are consciously investing in state-of-the-art equipment.“
The new paper factory is being built on a construction site covering an area of 450,000 square metres. As well as the new paper machine, which is to be built by the globally active machine-builder Voith Paper, a second stage of the project will also include the construction of an refuse-derived fuel (RDF) power plant that will use its energy-efficient design to supply the new high-performance paper machine with power and steam, thus largely freeing the paper factory from its dependence on fossil fuels. The impurities contained in recovered paper will be converted into heat in the site‘s own RDF power plant. Lastly, the paper factory will be equipped with an optimised water system and the company will invest in ultra-modern wastewater treatment.
With the new paper mill in Sandersdorf- Brehna Progroup AG is underpinning its positon as Europe‘s fastest organically growing containerboard and corrugated board manufacturer. As much as 85% of the containerboard manufactured in its own plants is consumed in the ten corrugated sheet board factories it currently owns in Germany, France, the Czech Republic,
Poland, the UK and Italy. Only recovered paper is used as a raw material in order to reduce the ecological footprint. Jürgen Heindl explains: "The new project slots into our One Mill Strategy which systematically follows our Green Hightech Philosophy. To put it another way, not a single tree is felled to supply our state-of-the-art mills. In the era of climate change this is conscious, real-life environmental protection."
