Gulf Paper Manufacturing and Toscotec started up PM2 after a forming section upgrade at their Mina Abdullah facility in Kuwait. The successful completion of this rebuild marks a new important stepping stone in the cooperation between the two companies, after Toscotec performed a major dryer section rebuild of Gulf Paper’s packaging paper machine in 2019.
Targets achieved
The forming section rebuild included an approach flow system upgrade and the installation of a state-of-the-art TT Headbox designed to match the high quality requirements for facial tissue in the Middle Eastern market. The targets of improvement of tissue formation and basis weight cross direction (CD) control have been fully achieved.
Ghaleb Alhadhrami Gulf Paper Manufacturing Projects & Development Manager and Ahmed Kasim Plant Manager say, “With this project, we invested in a technological upgrade of our existing machine in order to achieve a substantial quality improvement. The project hit its mark, and we are already offering an important added value to our customers in the regional market.”
Catalin Balint, Project Manager at Toscotec, says, “The positive outcome of this project was of great satisfaction to both parties, who have cooperated extremely well all along. Toscotec’s equipment has achieved their targets of speed increase and quality improvement. The fact that we have a long partnership with Gulf Paper Manufacturing was quite clear from the familiarity and trust that have characterized the relationship between the technical teams since the engineering phase.”
About Gulf Paper Manufacturing
Established in 1978, Gulf Paper Manufacturing was the first company to start manufacturing paper in the Gulf region in 1981. Owned by two families of Kuwaiti entrepreneurs, it operates three production lines at its Mina Abdullah paper mill in Kuwait: PM1 produces packaging grades, mainly Fluting medium, Test liner and white top liner, using 100% recycled paper; PM2 manufactures tissue from 100% virgin pulp; the third is a tissue converting line. The company’s current capacity is 70,000 tons, with 70% of its packaging grades being destined for export to GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and chiefly Saudi Arabia, and the domestic market accounting for approximately 30% of its business.
