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| History of the Company |
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JSC Volga was established by the privatisation of the Balakhna Pulp and Paper mill - engineering and construction of the mill in Balakhna started in 1925. Balakhna was chosen because of its proximity to: Moscow – Russia’s metropolis and main newsprint consumer; NIGRES – an existing power station; forests – providing a ready supply of wood for paper production; the transport infrastructure – the River Volga and the State Railway system; the water resources provided by the river Volga.
Regular paper production began in October 1928 and by the end of the 1950’s, annual production was about 250,000 tonnes.
During the 1960’s a fundamental reconstruction and expansion of the mill took place. During 1962-1967 two high-speed paper machines (PMs 6 & 7) from Wartsila, each with a capacity of 108,000 tonnes/year newsprint, were put into operation; a new stone ground wood mill with high-capacity grinders was built; a wood screening and refining unit was added and a new warehouse was constructed.
The following years saw continued development and introduction of up-to-date production processes. In 1977 Balakhna Paper was awarded the State Mark of Quality.
In 1981, PM 5 was replaced by with new high-speed machine from Valmet with a capacity of 90,000 tons per year.
In 1989 a chemo-thermo mechanical pulp (CTMP) plant equipped with the machinery from Sunds Defibrator was put into operation.
An important milestone in the history of the mill was
the 4th of January 1991
when it was decided to establish the Open Joint Stock Company Volga attracting foreign capital investment.
In October 1994 PM 8, from Voith, went into operation. Its capacity is 220,000 tonnes of newsprint per year with a trimmed width of 8900 mm, a working speed of 1400 m/min and basis weight from 40 to 48.8 g/m2. After PM 8 started, the oldest paper machines 1, 2 and 3 were shut down. Currently JSC Volga operates four newsprint machines (PM’s 5, 6, 7 and 8) and one wrapping paper machine (PM 4). The total annual capacity of JSC Volga is 530-550,000 tonnes.
In 1997, the wood yard was completely rebuilt with equipment supplied by FMW. The original CTMP plant was revamped and converted to TMP (thermo-mechanical pulp). The sulphite pulp plant with its associated acid plant and evaporation unit – highly polluting and unacceptable as part of a modern paper mill – were finally shut down in 1997.
In 2002, the company achieved the first FSC certification of one of its wood suppliers and continues to successfully influence wood suppliers to adopt internationally accepted FSC standards of forest management.
The upgrading of the waste waster treatment facilities was completed in 2005.
During 2006 the stone ground wood mill will be modernised, enabling
JSC Volga
to expand its
production and improve mechanical wood pulp quality.
Preparations are under way for the next major projects – the installation of a bark boiler and an upgrading of PM 8.
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