Ilim Group is developing a supply chain network in Southwest China

Newsroom

Ilim Group is developing a supply chain network in Southwest China

On February 28, Ilim Group top management met with the largest packaging and paper products manufacturers from Southwest China.

«Илим» развивает сеть поставок на Юго-Западе Китая

Wang Yong, Deputy General Director of JSC Ilim Group in China; Zheng Yongda, Chief Executive Officer Xiamen C&D Inc.; Timofey Sokolenko, Senior Vice-President, JSC Ilim Group; Lin Mao, President of Xiamen C&D Paper and Pulp; Cheng Dongfang, Chief Executive Officer of Xiamen C&D Paper and Pulp.

On February 28, Ilim Group top management met with the largest packaging and paper products manufacturers from Southwest China (Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou regions) in Chengdu (Sichuan province, China).

The event was attended by more than 220 representatives from 120 plants, Li Liping, CEO of the Beijing Representative Office, P&P products Committee in China, as well as Luo Fugang, Secretary of the Paper Production Association of the Sichuan province.

The event was organized by Ilim Group and Xiamen C&D Paper And Pulp Co., Ltd. - one of Ilim’s key partners in supplying products to the Chinese market. The meeting covered global trends in the P&P market, Ilim’s large-scale investment program, as well as options to increase supply to Southwest China.

In 2019, Ilim Group plans to increase its production volumes and pulp supply to the Chinese market. By 2025, the launch of a new pulp and paperboard mill in Ust-Ilimsk and its ramp-up will add another 600,000 tons of packaging products per year to the volume supplied to China and will total 2.4 million tons of finished products per year (in 2018 the supply volume amounted to 1.5 million tons).

“The packaging and tissues segments provide major growth opportunities in the P&P product mix,” said Timofey Sokolenko, Senior Vice-President, Sales & Supply Chain Management. “We are implementing our investment program based on these trends. Considering a location-specific advantage Ilim’s mills to China, our key partner, we are planning to increase the supply of our products – pulp and packaging materials – to all regions of China. Southwest provinces is a new promising destination for Ilim, which we explore with our long-standing Chinese distribution partners. That is why I believe our client network in this region will be developing at a rapid pace.”

“At present, the One Belt, One Road state program unites Chinese and Russian companies and, considering the globalization trends in the world’s pulp and paper industry, it arranges a joint discussion, ensuring development and mutual benefits. Our company, being a professional pulp and paper supply chain service provider, has been operating in the industry for over 26 years and it is a fast-growing groundbreaker in the global P&P industry. We couldn’t have achieved such a success without trust and support from our clients and, surely, without our key supplier and reliable partner – Ilim Group. I’m confident that our presence in the new Chinese regions will be a continuation of our fruitful cooperation,” said Lin Mao, President of Xiamen C&D Paper and Pulp, at the meeting.

Reference information:

Driven by its large-scale investment program, Ilim Group is developing a distribution network to all Chinese regions. At present, Southwest destination represents one of the largest P&P products consumers in the country. The population of three regions – Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou – exceeds the population of Russia (over 160 million people), and at the same time P&P products consumption per capita is constantly growing.
Ilim Group has already started to supply its products to Sichuan region on a regular basis, and over the next few years the supply volume will grow. In January 2019, the region already hosted a meeting with another key partner of Ilim Group – Chengdu Paperboard company. Such meetings with partners will be held on a regular basis in the future. They are aimed to develop finished products supply chain to the new country regions, ensuring growing production volumes.
Ilim Group is one of the leaders in the pulp and paper industry globally. The Company is headquartered in St. Petersburg and has production facilities in Arkhangelsk, Irkutsk, Leningrad, and Moscow Oblasts. The annual production output of Ilim Group exceeds 3.4 mln tons of pulp and paper products. Ilim Group supplies its products to more than 70 countries worldwide. Our strategic focus area is the growing Asian market. Over 40% of the Company's output is supplied to the Chinese market. Ilim has been operating in this market for more than 23 years.
By 2023, Ilim Group will increase its exports to China by 60% as a result of implementing its large-scale investment program aimed to increase production volumes.