After more than seven years of planning, almost three years of construction and a hefty half-a-billion dollars in investment, Amcor has officially opened one of the largest infrastructure assets of the Australian packaging industry to date, the company's new B9 recycled paper mill in Botany, Sydney.
Described by Amcor Australasia president Nigel Garrard as the “jewel in the crown of Australia's paper industry”, the mill, which has been in operation during its commissioning phase since late last year, was opened by NSW premier Barry O'Farrell in a ceremony attended by VIP representatives of Amcor management, its customers and government officials from Australia and overseas.
The ninth paper mill to stand on the Botany site, hence its “B9” designation, the recycled paper machine at the heart of the mill is the single largest capital investment in the company's 140-plus year history and boasts a mind-boggling range of vital statistics (PKN, November/December 2012, p.24).
Some 330 metres long and 22 metres high, the machine is capable of producing 1.6 kilometres of paper a minute, and up to 400,000 tonnes of paper a year when it reaches full capacity.
Taking in waste paper from Amcor's operations around the country, it produces recycled corrugated brown paper for its cartons business unit.
Amcor's Garrard told PKN the company had also already shipped its first export stocks from the mill, to Asia, in the past three weeks.
He said it has also already started producing corrugated stock for converting shelf-ready packaging for its customers.
“Shelf-ready stock is a high quality product that has a smoother and cleaner surface than other packaging paper stocks, so it's a good way to test out the capabilties of the machine,” Garrard said.
“In the push to shelf-ready trays, the type of paper produced here is right in the 'sweet spot' for what brand owners are looking for.
“It's also a good place for us to start in order to calibrate the capabilities of the B9. We are concentrating on our traditional areas of papers first, and will over the next year or so work our way up to finer and higher and more sophisticated papers for other applications.
“The ability to reduce the weight of the paper over time, while maintaining its strength, gives us opportunities to partner with our customers to create packaging innovations that are simply not possible today.”
Amcor's B9 machine in operation
Garrard also highlighted the B9's environmental credentials, stating that it had replaced three older machines around the country, resulting in a 25 per cent reduction in water consumption, 34 per cent reduction of energy usage, and cutting the amount of waste sent to landfill by 75 per cent.
Amcor CEO and managing director Ken MacKenzie told guests at the opening that the machine was the culmination of a strategic plan Amcor had undertaken over the past eight years to turn around what was then an “underperforming” company.
“The journey to create a new Amcor began in 2005. We were underperforming at the time,” he said.
He said this had initially concentrated on divesting facilities and staff globally. It meant, however, that by the time the global financial crisis (GFC) hit the world in 2008, Amcor was in a stronger position than it otherwise would have been.
“The GFC was an opportunity, it allowed us to make a number of acquisitions and transform the company,” MacKenzie said.
“And now, we have this, the single biggest capital investment the company has ever made.
"It was a pleasure signing the cheques along the way to create this facility.”
