22 November 2021
Volga JSC summarizes the results of participation in the international exhibition PAP-FOR 2021 and shares plans for the future
The 16th International Exhibition of pulp and paper, forestry, processing and packaging industry PAP-FOR 2021 was held on November 9–12 in St. Petersburg. The commercial service of Volga JSC presented new products at the exhibition: light and ultra-light types of testliner and fluting, which are increasingly in demand today due to the boom in e-commerce and delivery.
The current production portfolio of Volga JSC includes more than 100 commodity items, while the Company aims to further diversify its product line.
"The Company is optimistic about expanding its product line and launching new niche products for the Russian market, where paper consumption is currently on the rise," said Alexey Vdovin, Deputy General Director for Sales of Volga JSC.
"This year we will produce about 320 thousand tons of paper, of which about half are packaging papers. The major part of the packaging paper is still supplied to China. We produce mainly light products 42-55 g/m2, made on machine No. 8. Nevertheless, we already have a fairly large percentage of supplies to the domestic market and to Europe. Here, flutings and liners with a mass of 70 to 100 g/m2 produced on machine No. 5 are of more interest. And many of our customers are already requesting specifications for our products, expected in the next 1.5 - 2 years from the newly commissioned paper machine No. 6," Alexey Vdovin said.
The increased interest in the paper types of Volga JSC, in his opinion, is justified by the fact that more environmentally friendly packaging solutions that allow replacing plastic packaging with paper remain on the agenda in Russia, as well as around the world. The products presented at the exhibition, as well as the pace of development of the Company, confirm that Volga JSC is a very serious player in the market of packaging papers with confident prospects for strengthening its positions. Paper by Volga is already in very high demand in the corrugated packaging production market, and this is an excellent platform for future investments and proof of the correctly chosen course of development of the Company.
Among the competitive advantages of Volga JSC, Alexey Vdovin named the optimal price-quality ratio of paper, a very wide and constantly increasing product line, high quality and compliance with all environmental requirements.
Alexey Vdovin also noted that the commercial service of Volga JSC will certainly participate in the next PAP-FOR exhibition in 2022: "Industry exhibitions such as PAP-FOR and RosUpack are key for us, especially on the eve of launching new products to the market".
In addition to working with business partners at the stand of Volga JSC, Alexey Vdovin also made a presentation on November 9 at the session "Efficiency and Innovation of Plant Polymer Production". He spoke about how Volga moved from a single-product to a multi-product portfolio in just 3 years, about the large-scale development strategy implemented in the Company, which includes, among other things, a significant increase in production volumes on existing equipment, an increase in the production of packaging types of paper and cardboard (up to 70% in 2023).
Increasing the share of the packaging paper types is a key aspect of the Company's sustainable development program. Within the framework of the technical re-equipment program "Development-2023" implemented by Volga JSC, it is planned to increase the volume of output – up to 470-480 thousand tons by 2023, including due to the modernization and re-profiling of paper machine No. 6 and the growth of its own installed electricity generation by 27 MW.
As part of PAP-FOR business program, 8 specialized events were held, as well as hundreds of presentations at the participants' stands. Thus, within the framework of PAP-FOR 2021, on November 9, the Russian Association of Pulp and Paper Industry Enterprises (RAO Bumprom) organized a regular meeting of ecologists of PPI – members of the Association's Working Group on the following topic: "Problems of Ecological Rationing of Pulp and Paper Enterprises". The event was attended in person and remotely by managers and specialists of environmental services of leading Russian companies, including Svetlana Lomash, Director of Ecology Department at Volga JSC. Having supported the position of colleagues, she noted, in particular, that in addition to the current regulatory framework, it is necessary to update the industry Handbook on BAT, since it lacks a number of technologies and corresponding environmental indicators.
This makes it difficult to obtain state support for the implementation of "green" investment projects that improve the environment.
Svetlana Lomash also made a presentation on November 10 at the session "Environmental Agenda – Tasks and Solutions for the PP industry" on the topic "Environmental strategy of enterprise development: constraints of environmental legislation on the example of Volga JSC".
According to Svetlana Lomash, the Company effectively implements the "3R Rule": reduce the amount of waste (Reduce), return secondary material resources to production as raw materials (Reuse), use resources repeatedly (Recycle). As a result of a well-thought-out and consistently implemented environmental policy, more than 80% of production waste is sent to recycling, 98% of emissions are captured by gas treatment plants and 100% of industrial wastewater is sent to five-stage biological treatment.
The environmental investment component of the strategic environmental program of Volga JSC until 2025 has been generated as a set of supportive and compensatory measures for the prospective growth of production capacities and includes the blocks "air", "water", "waste", "land", "energy efficiency" – in total more than 20 projects with investments exceeding RUB 1.2 billion. At the same time, a serious constraining barrier to investment development is, on the one hand, excessive and, often, incomparable with the volume of impact, the overregulation of business, and the absence of an institution for state assessment of the sufficiency of strategic compensatory environmental measures aimed, inter alia, at improving the financial stability of the enterprise, which is most relevant during the period of major changes in environmental legislation within the framework of the implementation of the "regulatory guillotine".
The four-day exhibition was remembered by the participants and visitors for its bright exposition, presentations of new products, productive negotiations, unforgettable meetings and important acquaintances, constructive discussions of the most pressing issues, a rich business program, and, of course, its unique atmosphere.
Thanks to the excellent organization of the exhibition, even despite all the restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of specialists were able to meet with companies interesting to them and find the best solutions for their business.
