What Makes Century Sunshine Strong? White-Top Linerboard Expertise and Global Reach

Century Sunshine’s value begins with white-top linerboard and is extending to a broader industrial platform: deeper technical capabilities, closer customer integration, wider global markets, and a new Rizhao base designed to replicate its operating system at scale.

Company at a Glance

2025　Output in China Paper Association survey 2.1641 million tonnesNo. 16

2025　Group gross margin 14.1%Highest in a five-company comparison sample

2025　Overseas revenue RMB 245 millionApproximately +104% year on year

Sources:China Paper Association; China Sunshine Paper Holdings Company Limited Annual Report

Research Scope

The subject of this study is Shandong Century Sunshine Paper Group Co., Ltd., as listed in the China Paper Association’s output table. The Association’s figure of 2.1641 million tonnes is surveyed 2025 output; the company website’s 2.30 million tonnes is publicly stated production capacity; and financial and geographic revenue data come from the consolidated financial statements of the Hong Kong-listed China Sunshine Paper Holdings Company Limited. These three measures are not interchangeable.

The peer group comprises China Sunshine Paper, Xianhe Co., Ltd., Wuzhou Special Paper, Jingxing Paper, and Shanying International. Gross margins are recalculated from each company’s consolidated 2025 revenue and cost of sales. The sample is limited, and the companies differ in product mix, accounting standards, and expansion stage. It is used only to indicate a financial range and does not constitute an industry ranking.

The international marketing network, Thailand project, customer partnerships, and equipment information are presented as disclosed by the company. “International perspective” and “future star” are analytical judgments based on public evidence. Agreement signing, disclosure, approval, construction, commissioning, and profitability of the Rizhao project must be treated as separate stages.

01　TECHNICAL FOUNDATION

White-top linerboard expertise provides a deep technical foundation

The China Paper Association’s 2025 Annual Report on China’s Paper Industry lists Shandong Century Sunshine Paper Group Co., Ltd. with output of 2.1641 million tonnes in 2025, up 2.04% from 2.1208 million tonnes in 2024 and ranking No. 16 among the key companies surveyed. Its scale is clear, but the company’s distinctiveness is best understood through its product choices.

The company’s history shows that Century Sunshine was established in 2000, completed a 100,000-tonne-per-year white-top linerboard project in 2004, commissioned a light-coated white-top linerboard project in 2006, entered the Hong Kong capital market in 2007, added core board and high-grade micro-flute corrugating medium in 2008, and scaled up coated white-top linerboard in 2010.

White-top linerboard combines a printable top surface with board strength in a single grade. Light coating and full coating further improve smoothness, color reproduction, and printability. More than two decades of sustained investment in a specific set of customer problems have turned product differentiation into accumulated process know-how.

Patents and standards provide external evidence of this history. Public records of the China National Intellectual Property Administration show invention patents relating to manufacturing methods for light-coated and coated white-top linerboard. The National Public Service Platform for Standards Information lists Century Sunshine, or its former name, among the drafting organizations for three current national standards: Kraft Paper, Technical Requirements for Recovered Paper Classification, and Core Board.

Patents document methods for solving technical problems, while participation in standards brings production experience into a shared industry language. From products and processes to standards, Century Sunshine’s technical accumulation now spans white-top linerboard, recovered fiber, and core board. Drafting a standard does not mean every product automatically complies, and a patent does not prove deployment across every current production line. Together, however, they support the company’s long-term capacity for technical participation.

Sources:China Paper Association annual report; Century Sunshine corporate history; National Public Service Platform for Standards Information; patents relating to white-top linerboard.

02　FINANCIAL RESILIENCE

A 14.1% gross margin demonstrates product value in the financials

In 2025, China Sunshine Paper Holdings generated revenue of RMB 7.789 billion and profit attributable to owners of the Company of RMB 160 million. Sales volume of machine-made paper was 2.1086 million tonnes, broadly level with 2.110 million tonnes in 2024. Lower paper prices reduced revenue and profit, but the Group still achieved a gross margin of 14.1% and net cash generated from operating activities of RMB 547 million.

Century Sunshine’s product resilience becomes clearer when the 14.1% figure is placed within the limited peer sample. Based on consolidated 2025 revenue and cost of sales, the recalculated gross margins are approximately 14.1% for China Sunshine Paper, 13.7% for Xianhe, 7.9% for Wuzhou Special Paper, 6.5% for Jingxing Paper, and 6.1% for Shanying International. The sample median is approximately 7.9%, with China Sunshine Paper at the top of this group.

This comparison is not an industry ranking, but it does illustrate an operating fact: Century Sunshine’s portfolio of white-top linerboard, coated grades, and specialty papers preserved relatively strong unit-value headroom in the price-pressured environment of 2025. Its differentiation is visible not only in product descriptions, but also in gross margin.

Cash flow and financing costs also provide constructive signals. Net operating cash flow was RMB 547 million in 2025, well above the year’s profit, while financing costs declined by approximately 27%, from RMB 151 million in 2024 to RMB 110 million. At the same time, net cash used in investing activities was RMB 1.029 billion, showing that the company remains in an investment phase. Higher margins, positive operating cash flow, and lower financing costs provide a foundation for new projects; whether capital expenditure converts into sales and cash collection on schedule will determine whether this resilience can continue.

Sources:China Sunshine Paper Holdings Company Limited Annual Report 2025; comparison based on consolidated figures in the 2025 annual reports of five companies. The peer sample is directional only and does not assess the companies’ overall merits.

03　GLOBAL MARKETS

Overseas revenue doubles as global reach takes shape

Century Sunshine’s international perspective did not emerge overnight. China Sunshine Paper Holdings was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007, giving the business early access to international capital markets. Its flexographic preprinting and paper-machine projects have continued to incorporate equipment and process resources from international suppliers such as BOBST and Voith. The company has also established an English-language website and overseas sales teams, with publicly disclosed market coverage across Southeast and Central Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

The annual report provides a more direct market signal. Group overseas revenue reached RMB 245 million in 2025, compared with RMB 120 million in 2024, an increase of approximately 104% year on year. Overseas paper-product revenue was RMB 238 million, close to twice the prior-year level. Overseas revenue still represented only about 3.1% of the total and remains at an early stage, but the growth is not merely conceptual; it is already reflected in the consolidated financial statements.

The company also states that its overseas marketing network covers North America, Oceania, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Japan, and South Korea. In January 2022, the dry-ground pulp project of Renhe Company in Thailand commenced production. The marketing network provides market reach, the Thailand project provides an overseas industrial node, the Hong Kong listing provides capital and governance interfaces, and international equipment suppliers and brand customers create technical and application links.

These arrangements are still some distance from those of a mature global paper group. The 2025 annual report shows that more than 96% of the Group’s operating and non-current assets remained in China, while overseas markets were not yet a major source of revenue. A more precise assessment is that Century Sunshine has an international perspective and a global footprint that is beginning to take shape. The network, projects, and revenue growth are visible; the next tests are overseas repeat orders, regional profitability, and localized delivery.

Sources:China Sunshine Paper Holdings Company Limited Annual Report 2025; Century Sunshine international marketing materials; Century Sunshine corporate history; Century Sunshine preprinting materials.

04　PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT

Preprinting, agricultural and forestry fibers, and specialty paper extend the platform

International expansion requires products that customers can recognize and use consistently. Century Sunshine connected base-paper manufacturing with preprinting and packaging conversion relatively early: reel-fed facing paper is first printed using standardized flexographic processes, after which corrugated board and boxes are produced by converters in different regions. Base paper, color control, regional delivery, and brand standards are thereby integrated into one workflow.

In 2026, the company disclosed that it had received Shuanghui’s Strategic Cooperation Award and signed a strategic carbon-neutrality cooperation agreement with Yili. The former concerns supply assurance, quality, and coordinated response; the latter extends cooperation into green packaging, low-carbon technologies, and life-cycle carbon accounting. The names of these partnerships do not substitute for procurement value, repeat-order rates, or verified emissions reductions, but the presence of named customer applications shows that the company is participating in brand-packaging efficiency.

The raw-material base is also broadening. The company’s history states that the Kemai biochemical mechanical pulp project began trial production in 2020 and that a Bio-based New Materials Research Institute was established in 2022. Century Sunshine, Qilu University of Technology, Kemai Biopulping, and other organizations jointly participated in drafting the current group standard Unbleached Straw Biochemical Mechanical Pulp—Part 1: Pulp. Century Sunshine was also among the organizations responsible for the agricultural and forestry fiber project that received the 2024 First Prize for Science and Technology Progress of Shandong Province.

Specialty paper offers a new setting in which to transfer these capabilities. The Hong Kong-listed Group recorded specialty-paper revenue of RMB 2.035 billion in 2025, representing 26.1% of total revenue. Phase I of Xianhua Technology’s specialty-paper project completed a 120,000-tonne high-grade decorative base-paper line and passed its energy-conservation acceptance review. The company has also disclosed cooperation relating to carrier tape for electronics. Changes in consolidation affected specialty-paper revenue, and the full 360,000-tonne capacity has not yet been released. Nevertheless, from decorative base paper to electronic carrier tape, coating, surface control, and stable manufacturing are moving into more specialized international applications.

Sources:Century Sunshine preprinting materials; National Digital Standards Library standard on straw pulp; Qilu University of Technology science and technology achievements; energy-conservation acceptance for Phase I of the specialty-paper project.

The RMB 20.2 billion project moves Century Sunshine to a new industrial coordinate. The next question is whether more than two decades of differentiated capabilities can be replicated systematically in Rizhao.

Rizhao Project at a Glance

RMB 20.2 billion　Planned total investment

2.65 million tonnes　Planned integrated pulp-and-paper capacity for paper-based plastic substitution

Approximately 2,156 mu　Planned site area

Project status:Planned in three phases; the agreement has been signed and the pre-submission disclosure of the revised environmental impact assessment report has been completed. This does not mean that full construction or commissioning has begun.

05　THE RIZHAO COORDINATE

The RMB 20.2 billion Rizhao base is intended to replicate the system at a new scale

The Rizhao project moves Century Sunshine to a new industrial coordinate. In January 2025, the company disclosed that its 2.65-million-tonne paper-based plastic-substitution project would involve planned total investment of RMB 20.2 billion, occupy approximately 2,156 mu, and be built in three phases. The company website further describes it as an integrated 2.65-million-tonne pulp-and-paper project for paper-based plastic substitution. The project was also included in Shandong Province’s 2025 list of major projects.

According to the company’s agreement announcement, the completed project is expected to create more than 2,100 jobs and reach annual sales of RMB 16 billion and combined profit and tax contributions of RMB 3.3 billion. These figures describe an intended steady-state outcome, not current revenue or profit. In December 2025, the project company completed the pre-submission disclosure of its revised environmental impact assessment report, indicating that environmental review and project planning had moved to a more specific stage. Public evidence remains insufficient to describe the project as fully under construction, commissioned, or profitable.

What matters most about the RMB 20.2 billion project is not tonnage alone. Rizhao’s port conditions can support the logistics of wood chips, pulp, energy inputs, and finished products, while pulp-and-paper integration can bring raw materials, papermaking, functional materials, and packaging applications together at one base. For the first time, Century Sunshine has an opportunity to replicate, at a larger new site, more than two decades of expertise in white-top linerboard, coating, preprinting, non-wood fibers, and customer collaboration.

This is also where the assessment of a future-oriented paper company becomes testable. Century Sunshine already has a differentiated product base, relatively strong gross margin, positive operating cash flow, growing overseas revenue, global marketing touchpoints, and plans for a project exceeding RMB 10 billion. Whether that promise becomes durable will depend on six outcomes: project approvals and construction, grade-specific orders, capacity utilization, overseas repeat purchases, gross profit per tonne, and capital recovery.

Sources:Rizhao project agreement; Shandong Province 2025 major-project list; pre-submission disclosure of the revised environmental impact assessment report for the Rizhao project; Century Sunshine company profile.

PAPER PERSPECTIVES · THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE STORY

Century Sunshine is a future-oriented paper company with an international perspective and a global footprint that is beginning to take shape. Its distinctiveness lies in an uncommon combination of capabilities: white-top linerboard and coating create product value; standards and patents capture technical knowledge; preprinting connects the company with brand customers; agricultural and forestry fibers and specialty paper open new-material opportunities; and overseas markets and the Rizhao base move the company toward a broader industrial platform.

What is already established is the foundation in products, technology, customers, and cash flow. What is now developing is coordination across overseas markets, specialty paper, and low-carbon packaging. What remains to be proven is the construction pace, order quality, and return on capital of the Rizhao base.

This article is prepared to describe Century Sunshine as a “future star” in China’s paper industry. Here, “future star” refers to an observable strategic combination and is not a promise of growth or returns. Whether the company can evolve from a strong regional producer into a globally competitive materials and packaging platform will ultimately be determined by margins, cash generation, overseas repeat orders, project utilization, and customer value.

High-quality development in China’s paper industry needs more of this kind of long-term commitment: choose a valuable niche, turn products into standards, connect manufacturing with customers, take domestic capabilities into international markets, and test every expansion through cash flow. Century Sunshine’s story is moving from a single sheet of white-top linerboard toward a much larger global industrial map.

NEXT ARTICLE

Next: Zhejiang Xianhe Holdings Group Co., Ltd.

The next study will examine how Xianhe organizes specialty-paper categories, pulp-and-paper coordination, and multi-base expansion into a new growth platform.

Sources:China Paper Association, 2025 Annual Report on China’s Paper Industry. Rankings and output use the Association’s key-company survey scope and are not equivalent to capacity, sales volume, or market share.