Arauco's new cellulose plant is expected to produce 3.5 million tons per year and employ more than 6,000 workers (Photo: Disclosure)
A Araucoa Chilean cellulose and wood company, operating on five continents, announced the largest investment in the multinational's history last week.
The company announced the construction of its first bleached pulp factory in Brazil, the US$4.6 billion Sucuriú Project, built in Inocência (MS). The project is currently in the earthworks stage, which consists of preparing the area where the factory will be built, starting in 2025. The factory is expected to start operating in the second half of 2027.
The plant, with an annual capacity to produce 3.5 million tons per year, has a technological and equipment partnership with the Finnish company Valmet.
The favorable environment in Mato Grosso do Sul
According to Theófilo Militão, director of Sustainability and Institutional Relations at Arauco of Brazil, the choice for Mato Grosso do Sul is due to the well-structured policy for the sector in the state and its strategy of being the largest producer and exporter of cellulose in the country, is being well implemented and should be successful in the long term.
“Another important factor is the favorable conditions for eucalyptus cultivation in Brazil and the development of the Brazilian forestry sector. In this region, where eucalyptus takes approximately seven years to grow and reach the ideal cutting point for processing in the factory, we have an important forestry heritage that we have been operating since 2009”, he says.
Logistics is also a favorable point in the region, with the potential to bring inputs and transport production, whether through the road, rail or waterway network.
The expectation is that the Sucuriú Project will generate, in the implementation phase, around 14 thousand jobs at the peak of the work. When the work is completed, the operation will employ a contingent of around 6 thousand workers.
“We have worked with the community and regional institutions, with initiatives to train the local service chain and to qualify the local workforce to work in different areas of the plant construction process and in the operation phase”.
The advancement of operations in Brazil and the generation of electrical energy
According to Militão, Brazil allows the company to be more competitive on the global stage, especially in the production process of short fiber cellulose (eucalyptus).
“Arauco has been present in Brazil since 2002, in the Forestry and Wood Panels businesses. We currently have five industrial plants dedicated to the production of panels. In Mato Grosso do Sul, we began operating in 2009, through our forestry operation. We have a long and important history with the country. We are very motivated to take this first step in the pulp business”, he said.
The Sucuriú project will have energy self-sufficiency, through a biomass boiler responsible for generating energy from the reuse of bark, lignin, among other inputs not used in the cellulose manufacturing process.
The energy generated will be more than 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity, of which around 200 MW will be used for internal consumption at the industrial unit. The excess energy – enough to supply a city of more than 800 thousand inhabitants – will be made available to the national system.
Founded in 1979, Arauco has operations in more than 75 countries and 55 factories in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Portugal and South Africa.