China's Paper Operation

Trucks stacked with timber wait to show their paperwork to enter Asia Pulp and Paper's mill in Yangpu, China. APP claims that the multiple checkpoints for transporting wood into the facility make illegal logging very difficult. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

An ornate dragon outside Asia Pulp & Paper's main corporate office in the Yangpu Economic Development Zone. In China, the dragons symbolize strength and power. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Evaporation machine at the APP mill in Yangpu, China. The complex houses the biggest pulp mill in China. It makes pulp for the Hainan machine but also makes enough to supply other APP paper mills throughout China. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

The pulp-making area of the mill includes silos for bleached pulp (at left) and and a few to house the bleaching stage (right). Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

APP employees gather around a diorama of the the Hainan PM 2, the world's largest paper machine, during a presentation. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A citizen living near the He She Luoye plantation in China rides his motorbike through a crop of eucalyptus trees. The roads through the plantation are used regularly by townspeople to get from place to place. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

The Hainan PM 2, the world's largest paper machine, has an annual output of more than 1 million tons. Every minute it runs, and it runs 24 hours a day, it can produce a mile of perfectly uniform paper as wide as a two-lane highway. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

“It’s like walking into the room and finding the Titanic,” said Terry Hunley, acting North American head of Asia Pulp & Paper Co., of the paper machine. Only the Titanic was nowhere near as long. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Citizens living near the plantation stop on their motorbikes pause for a moment among the trees. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Cranes man APP's shipping port at its mill in the Yangpu Economic Development Zone in China. The company relies so much on faraway trade that it has its own ports. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A crop of eucalyptus trees at the He She Luoye plantation in Hainan province,China, measure 80 feet tall at 10 years old. In many cases the trees need only be 6 or 7 years old to harvest for paper making. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

The ports are often used to import wood pulp from elsewhere in Asia such as Vietnam and Thailand, as well as from Australia. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Wending Huang, APP’s chief forester in China, stands at the base of a 10-year-old, 80-plus-foot tall eucalyptus near the He She Luoye plantation. He calls them his “Yao Mings” — after the 7-foot-6 Chinese basketball star. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

People are seen fixing their motor scooter near the He She Luoye plantation. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A family sits outside their home near the He She Luoye plantation in Hainan province, a tropical part of China. It's a common sight to see pigs and chickens roaming outside homes in the area. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

An entry checkpoint at the APP's Hainan pulp and paper mill in Yangpu. In China, there is government support at every step of the process — money to create plantations, import raw materials, build new equipment and power the mills. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Asia Pulp and Paper wood-chip yard at its Hainan, China, mill. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

An Asia Pulp and Paper lab technician transplants tissue of genetically altered eucalyptus trees — engineered to grow fast and efficiently for papermaking — in Dingan, northeast Hainan province, China. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A speedometer is seen near the Hainan PM 2. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A large paper roll is seen near the Hainan PM 2. In a decade, China tripled its production to surpass the United States. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A large paper roll is seen near the Hainan PM 2. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A worker walks by paper rolls near the Hainan PM 2. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A worker stands behind a cut paper roll near the Hainan PM 2. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

People are dwarfed in size as they walk near the Hainan PM 2. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A drier using high heat dries paper running through the Hainan PM 2, the world's largest paper machine. In a day, it spools out 4,500 tons of glossy coated paper. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

A series of steam stacks and machinery compose the APP mill. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

This Asia Pulp and Paper warehouse, in in Yangpu, China, contains the Hainan PM 2, the world's largest paper machine. Completed in 2010, it's nearly as long — 1,404 feet — as the tallest building in the United States, the Willis Tower in Chicago. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Workers stand on raw pulp board shipment before it's loaded onto a cargo ship at APP's paper mill port in China. The pulp board is sold to other paper companies worldwide that then use it to make paper. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Wending Huang, Asia Pulp & Paper Co.’s chief forester, stands between jars containing "cutlings" growing in temperature-controlled incubation areas at in the firm's tissue culture laboratory. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Born in a lab, “cutlings” grow in careful incubation areas. These hybrids, engineered and cloned for maximum efficiency and pulp output, have names such as APP-22 and DH32-29. Image by Mike De Sisti. China, 2012.

Published December 12, 2012

Mike De Sisti and John Schmid

Over the course of the last decade, China tripled its paper production and in 2009 overtook the United States as the world's biggest papermaker. It can now match the annual output of Wisconsin, America's top papermaking state, in the span of three weeks.

Project

China and Wisconsin: Paper Cuts

Faced with the devastating twin threats of digital and China, can a critical Wisconsin industry survive?

Recently

May 17, 2013 /

Loeb Award Honors China-US Paper Industry Reporting

Ann Peters

Collaboration between Pulitzer Center, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yields Loew Award finalists--twice over--with reporting on US-China competition in paper industry.