Metso Paper supplies board machine to Lee & Man Paper in Vietnam

Published May 21, 2007 10.00.00 +2 GMT

Metso Paper will supply Lee & Man Paper Co. with a kraftliner board machine for their new mill, to be built in Vietnam. The new PM 15 will have an annual capacity of 400,000 metric tons and is scheduled to start up in July 2008. The total value of the order is approximately EUR 40 million.

Lee & Man again selected Metso as their supplier, thanks to the good cooperation between the companies, and the recent, excellent start-up of the PM 8 kraftliner machine in Changshu, China.

The new 3-ply board machine is a single-supplier delivery from Metso Paper. It will be the largest paper or board machine ever installed in Vietnam, at the same time representing the first investment in high-technology paper and board making in the country. PM 15 will have a wire width of 7,250 mm and a design speed of 1,150 m/min.

The delivery also includes metsoDNA machine controls and PaperIQ quality control systems by Metso Automation.

The new mill will be located at a greenfield site 200 km south of Ho Chi Minh City. Once completed, the new mill will serve the fast growing Vietnamese packaging market with high quality linerboard products. In 2005, paper and board consumption totaled 1.3 million tons in Vietnam, and annual consumption per capita approximately 13 kg.

Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is one of China's largest containerboard producers. The company, founded in 1994 and listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has three containerboard mills: one in Jiangsu province in Changshu and two in Guangdong province, in Huangyong and Hongmei. Today, the three mills have a combined annual production capacity of 2.2 million metric tons. The company's next new kraftliner board machine, PM 9, also supplied by Metso Paper, is currently being installed at the Hongmei mill. It is slated to come on stream in June 2007. Lee & Man has a very aggressive growth policy. It aims to have an annual capacity of almost 4 million tonnes by the end of 2008.

Metso is a global engineering and technology corporation with net sales of approximately EUR 5 billion. Its 25,500 employees in more than 50 countries serve customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, the energy industry and selected other industries.www.metso.com

For more information, please contact: Hannu T Pietilä Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Metso Paper Tel. +358 40 503 4085 hannu.t.pietila@metso.com