Asian Partners Visit Ilim's Mills in Siberia

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Asian Partners Visit Ilim's Mills in Siberia

Our partners from China, South Korea, and Hong Kong visited the Bratsk Mill twice this autumn.

Азиатские партнеры «Илима» посетили производство компании в Сибири

The purpose of the visit was to learn more about pulp and kraftliner production process at our facilities.

On September 17-18, the Mill hosted a delegation of Ilim Group’s biggest partners – Enercell company (pulp distributor in South Korea, who has been working with Ilim since 1998) and Hankuk Paper company (third largest manufacturer of paper in the South Korean market with an annual production volume of 500,000 tons).

On October 8-10, company representatives of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Henan province, Northeast China, and South Korea (total of 5 trader companies and a KLB plant), as well as managers of 20 mills from Baoding (the largest pulp consumer of Ilim Group) visited Bratsk. The delegation included businessmen from the Sichuan province – one of the promising and rapidly developing Chinese regions with a population exceeding 100 mln people. This is where Ilim Group is planning to build up its presence in terms of pulp and kraftliner supply.

Our guests included both Ilim’s long-standing partners and potential customers. During their visit to the Bratsk facilities they got a better understanding of the Company’s plans to upgrade its production facilities and the main stages of the process chain from harvesting to packaging of finished products prior to their delivery to the customers, and saw how the chip quality and pulp composition are controlled, etc.

Dmitry Grechkin, Senior Vice-President, Strategic Development, Ilim Group said: “As part of its program, Ilim Group is implementing a large-scale investment program aimed at capacity increase and product mix expansion. This allows us not only to retain the leading position in the Russian pulp and paper industry, but also expand its foothold in the export markets. Asia is Ilim's key market. For instance, upgrade of the existing facilities and launch of a new KLB Line will increase Ilim’s export to China by 60% by 2023. South Korea is another promising destination for Ilim. Presently, all three Ilim Group Mills export products to the Chinese market, however, there is room for growth and improvement. Such meetings provide an excellent opportunity to share best practices along the entire value chain from product manufacturing to its supply to the customer. Feedback from our partners helps us to both boost our sales in the Asian market and improve product quality and customer service.”

Young Wook Park, Chief Executive Officer, Enercell International Ltd:

“I consider trust-based partnership to be the cornerstone of relationships between Ilim Group and Enercell. Although markets can be in turmoil from time to time, Ilim is always focused on long-term development and pursues stability – both in terms of supply volume and quality. This gives us a huge advantage as our clients trust in long-term business relations. They are sure that Ilim will retain its presence in the market whatever the situation and guarantee the sales volume and quality of supply, whatever it takes. That is why our Company has partnered with Ilim for more than 20 years, annually increasing the supply volume.”

Ng Chi Leung Danny, CEO Kwok Fung (Sino H.K.) Enterprise Ltd:

“Thank you for your hospitality. The visit to the Mill was very useful. We are impressed by the scale of production and the scope of upcoming upgrade. I’m positive that the targets Ilim has set will be achieved to ensure further growth of sales to our region.

Hu Guangqi, Director Pulp and Paper Department, Henan Xinyu Internationa Pulp & Paper Co, Ltd:

“Upgrade of the Mills’ equipment will undoubtedly enhance the quality of products and increase production output, which will improve the Company's competitiveness in the Chinese market and increase its exports. We have a long history of fruitful cooperation with Ilim, and I have no doubt that our partnership will continue to be a very successful one.”

Reference information:
Ilim Group is one of the Top-10 Most Popular Market Pulp Brands in China. Ilim Group products are consumed by more than 500 mills in 20 regions of China. Ilim has had a representative office in China (Beijing) for 22 years. Over this period Ilim’s exports to China increased from 50 tons to 1.5 million tons. Today Ilim ranks first in terms of BSK volumes sold to China (12% of total BSK volumes in China). Execution of the capital projects will allow Ilim Group to add another 400 thousand tons in several years and therefore increase the volumes of Russian non-commodity and non-energy exports as decreed by the President of the Russian Federation.

In 2018, Ilim Group management held a number of meetings with Asian partners. There was a big conference in Zhengzhou (Henan, China) in April and in Baodin in September. These meetings are aimed to expand the client portfolio, improve customer service quality and optimize supply, etc. Negotiations were held and by 2023, Ilim Group plans to increase its total exports to China by 60%.

Enercell International Ltd is the main distributor of Ilim Group in South Korea. One of its key business areas is pulp and fiber supply for the local paper manufacturers. Ilim Group is the Company's major pulp supplier. Ilim's’s exports to South Korea in 2017 accounted for 4.0% of its total export sales. Ilim supplies products to South Korea from all its three mills.

Ilim Group is well positioned to deliver finished products to Asian markets due to a strong focus on customer needs, high service standards, including different logistics solutions (proximity of the Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk Mills to China gives Ilim additional sales opportunities), continuous process improvements and execution of efficient capital projects.