What Makes Longyuan Paper Strong? Recovered Fiber, Cogeneration and a 1.6865-Million-Tonne Packaging-Paper Base in Eastern Henan

Longyuan has integrated recovered fiber, cogeneration, production and delivery into a regional packaging-paper base. This system explains its output growth more convincingly than any single paper machine.

Longyuan Paper | 2025

1.6865 million tonnes of surveyed output, ranking No. 19.

20.02%　growth from the 2024 output reported by the association.

1,231　entry number on the MIIT Green Factory List.

1.6865 Million Tonnes: First, Trace the Source of Growth

In 2025, China's paper and paperboard output rose 3.74%, while industry operating revenue fell 2.59% and total profit declined 13.55%. Longyuan Paper's output increased 20.02% year on year, clearly outpacing overall industry growth.

Public information from the Taikang County government identifies linerboard and high-strength corrugating medium as Longyuan's main products. These materials sit upstream of corrugated board, corrugated cases and transport packaging, with customers generally concentrated within an economic transport radius. When paper prices are similar, freight, lead times and the ability to fulfill urgent replenishment orders quickly separate the actual procurement cost.

Eastern Henan connects the food, manufacturing, logistics and consumer markets of Henan and neighboring provinces, creating regional density in both recovered-paper supply and packaging demand. Locating paper machines near raw materials and customers shortens the inbound recovered-paper and outbound paper-roll routes, while making it easier to handle peak-season replenishment, grade changes and delivery volatility.

Output growth in 2025 indicates that the Taikang base absorbed more production demand. It does not, by itself, establish how margins, market share or the customer mix changed, but it moved Longyuan from a regional producer into the top 20 of China's major paper producers by output.

Sources:2025 Annual Report of China's Paper Industry; Basic Information on Manufacturing Enterprises in Taikang County.

Inside the Taikang Mill: Growth Depends on an Integrated, Continuous System

A 2025 report by the Zhoukou municipal government stated that recovered paper entering Longyuan passes through more than 20 processes, including screening, pressing, drying, winding, slitting and packaging. At the time, the company operated five intelligent paper production lines and one combined heat and power facility providing centralized heat supply, supported by systems for online energy monitoring, raw-material procurement, quality control and intelligent warehousing.

Together, these facilities address the daily operating details of a packaging-paper mill: recovered-paper contamination, the stability of steam and electricity, traceability of roll thickness and weight, and accurate warehousing after order-specific slitting. A loss of control at any stage ultimately becomes a paper defect, downtime, delayed delivery or a customer complaint.

The report also cited company management as stating that intelligent and green upgrades increased production capacity by 28%, reduced energy consumption per unit of output value by 15% and lowered the product defect rate by 25%. Because the calculation periods, denominators and third-party verification were not disclosed, these figures are useful for understanding the direction of the upgrades but should not be used to infer the association's output figures.

In March 2026, Longyuan was included on MIIT's 2025 Green Factory List. At the same time, Zhoukou's 2025 list of key entities subject to environmental supervision classified Longyuan as a key entity for both water and air. The two designations can coexist: a large paper base can continue investing in energy efficiency and circularity while remaining subject to ongoing requirements for water use, emissions, energy and disclosure.

Sources:Zhoukou municipal-government report on Longyuan Paper; notice on the 2025 Green Factory List.

What Corrugated-Board Producers Experience as Strength Often Happens Beyond the Paper Machine

Whether a paper roll can be converted into stable corrugated board depends on its performance on the customer's line. Linerboard must be evaluated for burst strength, ring crush strength, folding endurance, moisture content, surface quality and printability. High-strength corrugating medium also requires cross-direction ring crush strength, breaking length, basis-weight consistency and corrugating performance.

These metrics translate into specific operating outcomes: whether a grade change forces the line to slow down, whether adhesive consumption rises, whether board warp and score-line cracking increase, how much batch-to-batch variation exists within the same grade, and whether peak-season replenishment arrives on time. A lower paper price does not necessarily produce a lower total cost per square meter of corrugated board.

In 2021, the Zhoukou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology reported that Longyuan's Grade A recycled linerboard and Grade AA corrugating medium were selected for that year's national Green Design Product list. This provides a public reference point for the product categories. Buyers must still validate the grades against their own flute profiles, equipment, adhesives, line speeds, ambient humidity and end-use loads.

The potential value of Longyuan's base lies here: concentrating raw materials, energy, production, slitting and warehousing gives the mill a better foundation for shortening the feedback loop when abnormalities occur. Whether that capability becomes customer value must be demonstrated through corrugator efficiency, batch consistency, on-time delivery and repeat purchases.

Beyond Output, Several Accounts Still Need to Be Reconciled

In November 2025, the Zhoukou Municipal Bureau of Commerce reported that Longyuan's one-million-tonne green circular papermaking project was being built in phases. One 400,000-tonne production line entered operation in September 2024, and the report also stated that the company had established 1.2 million tonnes of paper production capacity. Another 400,000-tonne line remained at the planning stage, while an 800,000-tonne Phase II line was scheduled to start early in the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

A line in operation, a line under planning and a line scheduled to start construction represent different stages. Whether later phases proceed on schedule depends on equipment installation, commissioning, grade transitions, customer qualification and financing. The 1.2 million tonnes of production capacity in the government report and the association's 1.6865 million tonnes of output also use different, non-comparable measures; the available public information is insufficient to calculate capacity utilization.

Longyuan is not a listed company, and public sources do not provide 2025 revenue, profit, operating cash flow, inventory and receivables on a basis that can be matched to the reported output. Its No. 19 position therefore indicates an output ranking, not a complete assessment of operating performance.

Three sets of changes merit continued attention: whether new lines maintain stable loads and yields; whether corrugated-board producers see improvements in total converting cost, delivery performance and repeat purchasing; and whether operating cash flow can cover the inventory, receivables and project spending created by expansion. Adding responsibility data on water, air emissions and energy would make it possible to determine whether the base is becoming stronger or merely larger.

Sources:Zhoukou Municipal Bureau of Commerce project report; Zhoukou's 2025 List of Key Entities Subject to Environmental Supervision.

Longyuan Paper's entry at No. 19 adds a regional base in central China's packaging-paper market that merits continued monitoring.

Recovered fiber, cogeneration, intelligent production, warehousing and delivery already form a visible manufacturing foundation, while phased projects provide room for further expansion.

Output shows how much paper a mill produced. The customer's converting line and the producer's cash flow determine whether that output created sufficient value.