Press ReleasesNippon Paper Group to Produce Dissolving Pulp at Nippon Paper Industries Kushiro MillDissolving Pulp Business to Be Expanded in Response to International Rise in Demand

Nippon Paper Group, Inc.

Nippon Paper Group, Inc. (President: Yoshio Haga) has decided to manufacture dissolving pulp at the Kushiro Mill (Kushiro-shi, Hokkaido) of Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshio Haga), a core company of the Group. The aim of this decision is to meet the increasing demand for dissolving pulp in recent years, which stems from a rise in demand for rayon in China.
A verification test will commence in the fall of 2012 by diverting the existing continuous digester, equipment for the manufacture of kraft pulp for papermaking (Note). The production of dissolving pulp will be increased in a phased manner to 30,000 tons annually. In Japan, this is the first attempt to manufacture dissolving pulp with the use of a kraft pulp continuous digester. This project has been selected as the recipient of 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.
Nippon Paper Chemicals Co., Ltd. (President: Masami Yamaki) markets dissolving pulp mainly for use in rayon for clothing. For many years, the company has supplied domestic and foreign users with dissolving pulp mainly for use in rayon for clothing from Gotsu Mill (Gotsu-shi, Shimane prefecture), the only hub for the production of dissolving pulp in Japan. The reinforcement of production aims to expand the dissolving pulp business of our Group as a whole, and to expand into promising markets abroad.

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.

• Note:This is a kind of pulp made by boiling ligneous fiber at high temperature in a solution that mainly consists of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide.