Chilean pulp giant Arauco started up its new pulp line at its mill in the Biobio region in the south of the country.
The step takes the company closer to the conclusion of the Mapa project, which has been fraught with delays. Arauco’s parent company Copec informed shareholders on 30 December that Arauco has commenced chip feeding to the boiler of production line 3. Construction workers involved in implementing the Mapa project, numbering over 10,000 in the peak activity period, are scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of March.
The new line is designed to produce 1.56 million tpy of eucalyptus pulp, which will raise the total site capacity to around 2.1 million tpy of pulp. Arauco estimates that the final investment figure will add up to roughly $2.85bn.
