Hong Kong-based Far East Pulp & Paper has partnered with a Canadian industrial contractor to build a pulp mill using bamboo as an alternative raw material, according to chairman Sam Leung.
Initial investment in the project is US$233 million, of which US$203 million will go into construction of the factory and the rest into a bamboo plantation.
Far East and Canada-based SNC-Lavalin will contribute 32 per cent of the capital and are seeking partners to take up the remaining 68 per cent.
Construction of the factory, to be in Huilai in Guangdong, will begin later this year and production is expected to begin in 2004.
The mill is estimated to have a production capacity of 170,000 tonnes of paper pulp.
Mr Leung said the product would be an environmentally friendly alternative to pulp made from wood fibre, which was becoming increasingly scarce as forestry resources diminished.