Press ReleasesNippon Paper Industries Establishes Production Systems for Dissolving Pulp at Kushiro Mill- First domestic conversion of existing kraft pulp production facility -

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshio Haga) is pleased to announce the completion of construction of diverting the existing continuous digester for producing dissolving pulp at Kushiro Mill (Kushiro, Hokkaido), with a ceremony held to celebrate the completion of construction on October 11.

Construction had been proceeding since spring this year as the Company sought to expand its dissolving pulp business on the back of rising demand for dissolving pulp in recent years. The amount invested is about 2.2 billion yen. The production of dissolving pulp using an existing continuous kraft pulp digester is the first of its kind in Japan. It has been decided that the company will receive a subsidy for the development of equipment for the verification and evaluation of advanced technologies, a project organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to support innovation hubs.
Going forward, verification and assessments will be conducted and the production scale will expand to 30,000 tons a year.

Nippon Paper Group produces numerous products, mainly paper products, made from wood as recyclable resources. This recent commitment is intended to enhance the technology we have accumulated for the utilization of ligneous resources, and to broaden our Group's scope of business beyond paper production.
As a corporate group that comprehensively utilizes ligneous resources, we will continue pursuing the possibilities of wood and creating new value to meet the needs of society.