Following the "Plywood King," Guangxi Advances Towards the "Paper King"

2025-08-14 Source: Listening to Beihai

Recently, Guangxi's economic data for the first half of the year was released, with a GDP of 1385.095 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, achieving "three higher than", that is, higher than the national average, higher than expected targets, and higher than the same period last year. Among them, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the output value growth rate of Guangxi's paper and paper products industry was 45.7% in the first half of this year. Guangxi is reshaping the industrial landscape of China's paper industry through huge output increases and new production capacity, and has a great potential to become the "Paper King" after the " Plywood King".

Aerial view of Stora Enso Beihai Factory

Looking at the paper industry map of Guangxi, Golden Eagle Group from Indonesia established Guangxi Jin Gui Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd. in Qinzhou as early as 2003; Stora Enso from Finland established Stora Enso (Guangxi) Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd. in Beihai in 2014. A number of domestic paper industry leaders are also not far behind, and have invested heavily in Guangxi. Following the settlement of Nine Dragon Paper, Sun Paper, Lee & Man Paper, and Jianhui Paper in Beihai, Nanning, Chongzuo, Guigang, Wuzhou and other places, China Huatai Group, one of the "top three" paper companies, also signed a cooperation framework agreement with the Yulin Municipal Government in July this year, planning to invest 16 billion yuan to build a coastal integrated forest pulp and paper project.

Stora Enso Beihai Factory

According to statistics, 80% of China's new pulp and paper production capacity has landed in Guangxi, and Guangxi has built and is building more than 42 million tons of pulp and paper production capacity. Paper companies are flocking to Guangxi, and the agglomeration effect is obvious, making Guangxi a popular place for paper industry investment.

People have always had the stereotype that the paper industry pollutes the environment, consumes high energy, and has low technical content. Now, times have changed. Modern papermaking technology has achieved clean production and automation. Through alkali recovery and wastewater treatment technologies, environmental pollution and energy consumption have been greatly reduced. In June 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued an opinion to strictly review "high energy consumption and high pollution" projects. The papermaking industry was not included in the "two high and one low" industries, which means that the papermaking industry has long been transformed and has been officially recognized.

Stora Enso Beihai Factory Production Workshop

Taking Stora Enso Beihai Factory as an example, most of its production equipment comes from world-renowned companies. The entire production process is standardized and intelligent, and it is equipped with an internationally leading wastewater treatment technology system. The water reuse rate of the entire factory reaches 97%, and the comprehensive utilization rate of solid waste exceeds 99%, achieving energy conservation, emission reduction, clean production, and resource recycling. It is a national-level green factory. Obviously, paper companies entering Guangxi is not a helpless move due to heavy environmental pressure, nor is it that Guangxi has relaxed environmental protection requirements and prefers GDP over green mountains and clear waters.

Forestry machinery harvesting

Undoubtedly, Guangxi's rich raw material resources are the biggest attraction. Guangxi is located in the southern border of the motherland, with mountains, hills and rocky mountains accounting for 69.7% of the area, a typical area with little land and many mountains. The Tropic of Cancer runs across the middle, with a warm climate, abundant rainfall and sufficient sunshine, and various plants grow quickly. Therefore, Guangxi not only has the raw materials used for papermaking, whether it is wood pulp such as eucalyptus and pine, or non-wood pulp such as bamboo and bagasse, but also has a huge volume. For example, the planting area of eucalyptus exceeds 45 million mu, the planting area of bamboo exceeds 7 million mu, and the planting area of sugarcane exceeds 11 million mu... These papermaking raw materials have long fibers and good strength, which are suitable for production. Various types of paper , and have strong regeneration capabilities, so many paper companies naturally flock to Guangxi.

In addition to the advantages of raw materials, Guangxi's shipping advantages that connect rivers and seas cannot be ignored. Some of the paper companies stationed in Guangxi choose to be located along the river, such as Nanning Sun, Chongzuo Lee & Man, Guigang Lee & Man, Guigang Zhihu Yuanchuang, Laibin Xianhe, and Tengxian Jianhui; others choose to set up factories along the coast, such as Beihai Jiulong, Beihai Sun, Beihai Stora Enso, Qinzhou Jin Gui, and Fangchenggang Hongyuan.

At present, Guangxi has formed a pulp and paper industry cluster along the river and along the coast, and the development trend is good, and the agglomeration effect of the upstream, midstream and downstream industries is obvious. Of course, Guangxi also has a convenient land transportation network, which directly reaches the southwest to the west and connects Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to the east; the most important thing is that it can directly radiate the 10 ASEAN countries, where there are cheaper raw materials and a huge consumer market.

Domestic and foreign paper giants have flocked to Guangxi, opening up new industrial paths and injecting new economic vitality into Guangxi. When resource endowments meet precise policies, and when a single industry meets chain thinking, traditional industries can also be revitalized. Guangxi's road to becoming the "King" of the paper industry is getting wider and wider. In addition, many experts in the industry believe that compared with the cities along the river in Guangxi, Beihai has obvious advantages in regional conditions and navigation capabilities, with high logistics efficiency and low costs. It is very likely to develop into the leader of the papermaking industry in Guangxi, and the future is worth looking forward to.

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