I. Why Guangxi's Paper Industry Deserves Attention

Guangxi's rise in China's papermaking landscape has drawn significant industry attention over the past decade. In 2023, Guangxi ranked sixth nationally in machine-made paper and paperboard output. By 2024, the province produced 5.1 million tonnes of virgin pulp, a 20% year-on-year increase, with wood pulp at 4.32 million tonnes accounting for approximately 16.4% of national wood pulp production. Total industrial output has exceeded 60 billion yuan and continues to expand rapidly.

Two distinct but locally rooted forces drive this trajectory: an integrated forestry-pulp-paper industrial system built on eucalyptus plantations, and an agro-industrial circular pathway utilizing sugarcane bagasse from Guangxi's dominant sugar industry. These two forces, running in parallel, form the core framework for understanding Guangxi's paper sector.

II. Integrated Forestry-Pulp-Paper: Industrial Clusters in Beihai and Qinzhou

Guangxi's modern papermaking industry is grounded in the large-scale cultivation of fast-growing eucalyptus, which has a rotation cycle of roughly five to seven years and adequate cellulose content for chemical pulping. The Tieshangang Industrial Zone in Beihai and the Qinzhou Port Economic and Technological Development Zone have leveraged their port access to attract several of the largest integrated pulp-paper projects in China.

Stora Enso Beihai Mill

Finnish paper giant Stora Enso's integrated pulp-paper project in Beihai represents a total investment of approximately 19 billion yuan, making it one of the largest foreign direct investments in Guangxi's history. The mill began commercial production in 2016, focusing on bleached chemical pulp and premium liquid packaging board. Following a machine upgrade, capacity has reached 600,000 tonnes per year of paperboard, supported by 900,000 tonnes per year of bleached wood pulp. Stora Enso holds an 83% equity stake, with IFC at 5%, and Guangxi Forestry Group and Beihai Forestry Investment & Development Company holding the remainder — an ownership structure that reflects the local government's strategy of linking plantation resources directly to mill capacity.

Nine Dragons Paper Beihai Base

Nine Dragons Paper is China's largest packaging paper producer by volume. Its Beihai base is planned for 7.95 million tonnes per year across two phases, covering an integrated forestry-pulp-paper and intelligent packaging supply chain. By 2024, total commissioned pulp-paper capacity had reached 4.85 million tonnes per year, making it one of the largest single-site paper complexes in China. Nine Dragons' continued expansion has cemented Beihai's status as the primary anchor of Guangxi's paper industry.

Guijin Pulp & Paper (金桂浆纸业)

Guangxi Guijin Pulp and Paper is one of the four companies in Guangxi with annual capacity exceeding one million tonnes. Its primary product is white cardboard. In 2024 it was pursuing expansion projects that would add 1.8 million tonnes per year of premium paperboard and 750,000 tonnes per year of chemimechanical pulp, with completion targeted for 2026. According to the 2025 Guangxi Top 100 Enterprises report, Guijin's revenue reached 11.387 billion yuan, ranking 43rd in the region.

Sun Paper's Guangxi Presence

Sun Paper, a Shandong-based integrated pulp-paper listed company, has established Guangxi Sun Paper Co. and Nanning Sun Paper Co. in the province. The two entities recorded combined revenues of approximately 12.7 billion yuan in 2025, both ranking in the Guangxi Top 100. Sun Paper treats Guangxi as its southern integrated forestry-pulp-paper base, leveraging eucalyptus feedstock and coastal logistics to reduce overall costs.

III. Bagasse Papermaking: A Globally Rare Agro-Industrial Circular Model

Guangxi is China's largest sugarcane-producing province, consistently accounting for over 60% of national sugar output. This sugar industry scale generates substantial bagasse as a byproduct. In 2024, Guangxi produced 560,000 tonnes of bagasse pulp, a 3.7% year-on-year increase, the highest in China. Converting bagasse from waste into pulping feedstock distinguishes Guangxi from other major papermaking regions in the country.

During the 2023–2024 crushing season, Guangxi produced approximately 6.18 million tonnes of sugar, and 100% of bagasse was utilized, with a significant share entering the paper supply chain. In 2023, bagasse supplied to pulp mills reached 1.08 million dry tonnes. Papers made from bagasse pulp are primarily tissue and selected functional grades, with mills linked to sugar factories concentrated in Guigang, Chongzuo, and Nanning.

In terms of feedstock structure, bagasse pulp accounted for 6% of Guangxi's 2023 virgin pulp output, alongside wood pulp at 82%, bamboo pulp at 1%, and recycled fiber at 11%. While not the dominant fiber source, bagasse's distinctive value lies in channeling an agricultural by-product directly into the paper supply chain, reducing pressure on forest resources while providing sugar mills with an additional revenue stream.

IV. Geographic Distribution of Industry Clusters

Guangxi's paper enterprises show a clear coastal-clustering pattern, combined with distribution around major sugar production hubs. Beihai hosts the largest industrial-scale concentration, anchored by Stora Enso and Nine Dragons. Qinzhou Port hosts multiple medium-scale pulp-paper projects. Nanning and Guigang combine traditional pulp production with bagasse circular economy operations and significant tissue paper capacity. Laibin and Chongzuo, as core sugarcane-growing areas, support bagasse-linked paper mills. Wuzhou has historical hand-papermaking traditions and has more recently attracted packaging paper capacity.

By 2024, companies with annual capacity exceeding 100,000 tonnes collectively accounted for roughly 90% of Guangxi's total paper production capacity, indicating a sustained trend toward industry concentration.

V. Product Mix and Downstream Markets

Packaging paper and paperboard dominate Guangxi's output. In 2024, total packaging paper and paperboard production reached 5.89 million tonnes, up 20.9% year-on-year, including 4.11 million tonnes of white cardboard and 1.36 million tonnes of linerboard. Tissue paper output reached 1.25 million tonnes, up 16.8%, representing approximately 9.9% of national tissue production. Cultural and printing paper output was 1.36 million tonnes, up 34.6%.

White cardboard is Guangxi's competitive specialty within packaging board, serving food and beverage, consumer goods, and pharmaceutical packaging. Nine Dragons' linerboard and corrugating medium output directly serves e-commerce logistics packaging demand across south and southwest China. For tissue, Guigang's Guangdong-Guangxi Industrial Park has attracted investment from Lee & Man Paper and Longpai Paper, forming a nascent tissue cluster.

VI. Challenges and Transition Directions

The first structural pressure from rapid capacity addition is overcapacity risk. In 2024 and 2025, over 25.1 million tonnes of new pulp-paper capacity across Guangxi entered commissioning, concentrated in a short window. If global paper prices weaken, imbalance between supply and demand will emerge quickly. Industry-wide profit margins for papermaking already showed compression in 2023–2024; large integrated producers can absorb cost pressure through vertical integration, but smaller mills face materially increased operational stress.

The second pressure stems from ecological concerns over eucalyptus monoculture. Eucalyptus is a fast-growing, high-yield species, but its high water consumption and soil nutrient depletion have generated sustained debate among researchers and local communities. Guangxi's forestry authorities have promoted mixed-species planting in certain areas, and the province's Trillion-Yuan Forestry Industry Three-Year Action Plan (2023–2025) explicitly requires optimizing eucalyptus cultivation structure. This introduces long-term uncertainty into purely eucalyptus-dependent supply chains.

The third direction involves green transition and carbon emission pressure. As China's national carbon trading market progressively covers the paper industry, compliance costs for clean power, wastewater recycling, and solid waste management continue to rise for integrated pulp-paper enterprises. The bagasse pulp pathway carries natural advantages in biomass utilization and is expected to receive stronger policy support going forward.

For sales teams serving upstream suppliers — including paper chemicals, pulping equipment, timber procurement, and packaging materials — Tianxia Gongchang offers dual-filter search by region and industry across Guangxi's paper and paper products factories, enabling targeted access to prospective clients and decision-maker contact information.

VII. Research Institute Observations

Guangxi's papermaking expansion has largely been driven by a factor-cost arbitrage: fast-growing eucalyptus plantations, coastal port logistics, agricultural bagasse as low-cost feedstock, and relatively affordable industrial land have created a comparative advantage bundle that continues to attract large-scale pulp-paper capital. This logic retains validity in the near term, but its sustainability depends on three evolving variables — the direction of eucalyptus planting policy, the trajectory of global pulp and paperboard price cycles, and the differential policy impact of carbon constraints across different pulping routes. Whether Guangxi can transition from capacity-led scale expansion toward quality differentiation after the current capacity peak will be one of the most consequential questions for this production region over the next decade.

Data Sources

  • Tianxia Gongchang (Guangxi paper and paper products factory directory and industry data)
  • Paper Observer (纸业观察网): 2024 Guangxi Paper Industry Operating Results (2025)
  • Paper Observer: 2023 Guangxi Paper Industry Operating Results (May 2024)
  • China News Service: Largest High-End Papermaking Base Takes Shape in Beihai, Guangxi (March 2023)
  • Sina Finance: Guangxi Pulp-Paper Industry Rising Strongly: Three Paper Companies in Top 100, Capacity Exceeds 42 Million Tonnes (2025)
  • Sina Finance: Sun Paper — Integrated Forestry-Pulp-Paper Strengthens Competitive Advantage (February 2025)
  • Packaging Gateway: Stora Enso's Beihai Mill, Guangxi Province
  • Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Government: Guangxi Trillion-Yuan Forestry Industry Three-Year Action Plan (2023–2025)
  • Bisenet: Guangxi Paper Industry Rising Strongly, Total Output Value 60 Billion Yuan in 2022 (June 2023)