BEIJING, March 13 -- Huatai Group, one of the world's largest newsprint production companies, has helped China occupy a bigger share of the global market with its robust growth since its launch five years ago.

The sales revenue of the Shandong-based company hit a record high of more than 10 billion yuan last year, an increase of 36 percent over 2005.

Earlier, China had to rely heavily on imported high-grade newsprint. However, the balance of trade in newsprint turned favorable last year with export volume hitting more than 200,000 tons, 75 percent of which was produced by Huatai.

"The favorable balance indicates that China will no longer depend on importing newsprint," said Li Jianhua, president of Huatai.

Technological innovation has played a key role in Huatai's rapid development over the years, Li said.

"Our aim is not to be the largest producer of newsprint, but to make our products the best by introducing advanced technology," he said in a recent interview with China Daily.

Over the last five years, Huatai has invested 7.5 billion yuan in upgrading its technology and setting up four paper production lines.

"After the four production lines began operation, we've been able to produce more paper products, which have sold in both the domestic and overseas markets," Li said.

The latest production line, which began operation last October, has an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons of paper, currently the largest in the world.

"With a total annual output capacity of more than 1.2 million tons, Huatai has maintained its leading position in newsprint manufacturing market in the world," Li said.

Besides the Chinese market, Huatai's products are mainly exported to the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia.
According to Li, Huatai plans to export 500,000 tons of newsprint this year, out of a total trade volume worth 550 million U.S. dollars.

Besides technological innovation, partnerships with domestic and overseas newsprint makers have also helped Huatai realize fast growth in the international market.

In 2003, Huatai set up its paper-making maintenance service center in North China in cooperation with Germany-based paper machine producer Voith Group.

Last year, Huatai also cooperated with the Finland-based Stora Enso Group to build a 200,000-ton supercalendered (SC) paper project, which will be put into action by the end of next year.

Further, Huatai signed a cooperative contract with the Guangdong Xinhui Shuangshui Power Plant Co Ltd last year, to develop a 1.2 million-ton paper project in South China.

"In the domestic market, we shifted our strategic focus last year to South China, since the region has maintained a rising demand on newsprint," Li said.

Huatai has attached great importance to environmental protection over the past few years, in order to achieve sustainable development for the company.

Huatai has so far invested more than 700 million yuan in environmental protection, taking the national lead in manufacturing environment-friendly paper products.