Turkish firm to add recycled-content paper machine

Valmet, a Finland-based supplier of paper mill equipment, says it will supply a new scrap paper-fed containerboard making line to Batı Kipas Kagıt Sanayi İsletmeleri in Söke, Turkey. The new board-making line (to be known as paper machine 3, or PM 3) will produce recycled-content fluting and liner grades. The start-up of PM 3 is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023.

“The new board machine PM 3 will be a showcase of Valmet's high-level technical innovations,” says Sinem Öksüz Dedebayraktar, a board member of Kipas Holding. “Batı Kipas Kagıt wants to be a forerunner in technology. We selected Valmet due to its innovative solutions and the good performance of Valmet’s earlier delivery of our PM 1 in Kahramanmaras [Turkey].”

“Our cooperation with Kipas Kagıt has been excellent,” says Haluk Arıcan, senior sales manager for Turkey at Valmet. “In August, we also announced a multifuel boiler delivery to the same customer. The high-level technical solutions we have offered have really been differentiation factors to Kipas.”

Although the value of the equipment order has not be disclosed, Valmet says, “An order of this type and delivery scope is typically around 90 million euros to 110 million euros ($105 million to $129 million).”

Valmet's delivery for PM 3 will include a containerboard making line, including an approach system, a reel and a winder. An OptiFlo Layering Gap headbox with aqua layering technology will be used to produce a two-layer sheet using only one headbox and one OptiFormer Gap forming unit, says Valmet.

The 9.1-meter-wide (nearly 30 feet) board machine will produce recycled-content fluting, testliner and kraft top testliner grades at an annual capacity of approximately 650,000 metric tons, adds the equipment producer.

For Kipas Kagıt PM3 joints its two current paper machines: PM 1 in Kahramanmaraş with an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons and PM 2 in Söke with a production capacity of 720,000 tons of coated grades.