West Coast Paper

completed

The West Coast Paper Mills Ltd., (WCPM or the company) is undertaking a modernization and expansion project consisting of:- installation of new pulp mill facility of 246,500 tons per annum (tpa) and shutdown of the old pulp mill; - installation of a new writing/printing paper machine with capacity of 135,000 tpa; - upgrade of its existing duplex board machines to improve quality and increase production by about 6,500 tpa; and - installation of additional equipment for effluent treatment, chemical recovery and power plants to improve environmental performance and reduce costs. The project will be implemented over a three years period and will allow the company to enhance its competitiveness by reducing costs due to: - achieved economies of scale as a result of the capacity increase; - strengthened input/output ratio as a result of the new technology; and- a switch from inefficient stoker-fired boilers to fluidized bed combustion (FBC) boilers.It will also enable WCPM to widen its product range and increase the proportion of value-added products. The company has requested the Government of Karnataka for an allotment of 50,000 hectares (ha) of land in adjoining districts under a Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Maintain and Transfer (DBFOMT) scheme for taking up captive plantations. This will give an additional impetus to the availability of raw material locally, thereby eliminating procurement of raw material from other states or through imports. This effort would also bring down the average distance of raw material procurement from the present 700kms to 200kms. The company has also embarked on a program wherein 18,000 hectares of unproductive agricultural land within a 250km radius of Dandeli will be developed as managed plantations of pulpwood trees such as eucalyptus, casuarina, acacia and subabul in the next five years, which is expected to yield some 250,000 metric tons of pulpwood per annum from the year 2011 onwards. The material will be of uniform size and superior quality.