Another expansion project is to come on the US tissue market. After Clearwater Paper, Georgia-Pacific has also announced it will install a new tissue machine. Start-up is scheduled for 2019.
Georgia-Pacific (G-P) has announced a major investment of more than $400m. The company wants to invest in its consumer tissue and towel business.
In this context, G-P intends to set up a new tissue paper machine. It is not yet clear where this new machine will be located. A final decision on the location of the new operations, which would be in the eastern United States, was expected to be announced soon, the company said. The project will create about 80 new jobs. The tissue machine is scheduled to be started up in 2019.
The new tissue machine will use through-air-dried (TAD) technology. In the TAD process, hot dry air is blown through the tissue web and pressing is largely avoided. This technology is used to produce a particularly soft tissue product.
Clearwater Paper invests $340m in production and distribution capacities
G-P's investment is one of two major investment projects in the tissue segment that were recently announced in the US. In February, Clearwater Paper said it would spend $283m on the installation of a new tissue machine at a new site adjacent to its Shelby facility in North Carolina. The machine will have an annual capacity of 70,000 t of private label bath, paper towel and napkin products, according to Clearwater Paper. The company will spend another $57m on the purchase and expansion of an existing warehouse that is to consolidate all southeastern warehousing in Shelby.
The new tissue facility is scheduled to be completed in early 2019 and be fully operational in 2020.
