Tom Park, managing director PaperlinX said, “This is a key strategic development for the Maryvale Mill, which will provide benefits to all stakeholders. We are very pleased that the project has been completed and that we can now look forward to the contribution that will be made to business returns.”
The new plant has started-up in conjunction with the mandatory site boiler inspections and the first pulp has been produced. The company says it is now in the optimisation phase, which will enable full capacity to be reached in the near future. It expects that the project will contribute around $30m of incremental EBIT in the 2009 fiscal year, and an annualised incremental EBIT of $40–50m.
It says that, on successful completion of the optimisation phase, the mill will:
• Have a 90,000mt per annum increase in production of bleached
eucalypt pulp
• Benefit from significant production cost reductions
• Benefit from improved environmental performance
• See an improvement in product quality
Park concludes, “It has been a challenging project undertaken during a volatile period. Costs and timing have significantly over-run from our original estimates, but the long term return expectations and strategic rationale have remained sound throughout.”
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