Rosslyn, Pretoria, South Africa, 21 September 2011 -- Africa’s largest packaging manufacturer, Nampak, formally opened its SAR 800 million expansion project at the group’s corrugated paper mill in Rosslyn, Pretoria.

Built on a green field site adjacent to the existing paper mill, the new paper mill is one of Nampak’s largest capital projects to date. The objective of the expansion is to make the Nampak Corrugated business self-sufficient in terms of its supply of waste-based packaging grades of paper.

According to Christiaan Burmeister, Nampak Corrugated’s managing director, this higher level of vertical integration is consistent with international trends, as more and more corrugated players are producing their own paper requirements. Christiaan added that doing so offers multiple benefits, including improved supply chain management and lower raw material input costs.

With the upgrades to the existing Rosslyn infrastructure, Nampak Corrugated is committed to supplying world-class corrugated boxes to the industry, and will be pushing sustainability hard in this sector.

At full capacity, the new paper mill will enable Nampak to process more than 150,000 tons of waste paper per annum, producing more than 140,000 tons of paper for use in corrugated boxes and containers. "This enables us to not only put corrugated boxes back into the industry, but back into the economy," Burmeister said.