Singburi Mill is a

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ful ...

and

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...

situated in Sing Buri, Thailand. Owned by the CAS Group, the mill sources its fiber from deinking to feed a single paper machine producing

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has an ...

. PM1 has an annual production of 125,000 tonnes. The mill had 239 employees in 2013, and was the sole manufacturer of newsprint in Thailand, approximately producing the entire country's consumption.

History

During the early 1990s Thailand was dependent on importing all its newsprint from Europe and North America, with an annual consumption of about 300,000 tonnes.Pollen: 209 The mill was established as Shin Ho Thailand as a joint venture between South Korea's

Shin Ho Paper Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese g ...

, various South Korean and Thai banks, the '' Thai Rath'' and the International Finance Corporation. Completed in 1994, the mill featured a Valmet paper machine running entirely on deinked pulp,Pollen: 208 sourced entirely from the United States. Old newsprint from Thailand could not be used, as there had not been established any means of recycling the paper domestically. Shin Ho was struck hard by the

1997 Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

, with steed decline in newsprint demand, especially in Thailand. For instance ten of the twenty-five largest Thai newspapers went bankrupt during the period. They sold two of their mills,

Cheongwon Mill Cheongwon Mill is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in Cheongju, South Korea. Owned by Jeonju Paper, the mill sources its fiber from deinking to feed a single paper machine producing newsprint. PM1 has an annual production of 183,000 tonnes, fe ...

in South Korea and Singburi Mill, to the Norwegian pulp and paper company Norske Skog. The transfer of ownership of Singburi Mill took place on 17 August 1998. These assets were merged into PanAsia Paper from 1 February 1999. Ownership passed to Norske Skog again in January 2006. Norske Skog started selling its Asian operations in 2008 and since 2010 Singburi Mill was the sole Norske Skog mill in Asia. Effective 21 November 2013, Norske Skog sold the mill for 33 million United States dollars to Charoen Aksorn Holding Group (CAS Group).

References

Bibliography

* * {{Norske Skog Pulp and paper mills in Thailand Sing Buri province 1994 establishments in Thailand PanAsia Paper Norske Skog