Heinzel Group – The Plans of Pulp Zampano in Paraguay

The local Heinzel Group (annual turnover of about two billion euros, 2400 employees) wants to increase its income in the coming years with a really large investment: in South America they have now taken a 25% stake in the company Paracel, which is running a reforestation – and pulp mill project with gigantic dimensions. Paracel has more than 180,000 hectares of land for reforestation in northern Paraguay and plans to produce 1.8 million tons of eucalyptus pulp per year. As announced only this week, Graz-based plant manufacturer Andritz supplies the entire plant. The order value for this will be over 1.5 billion dollars!

“It is the first pulp mill in Paraguay and the largest private investment that has ever existed there,” said entrepreneur Sebastian Heinzel in the “Krone” interview. So far, the group produces pulp (used for kitchen rolls, napkins, etc.), packaging paper and magazine paper in Pöls (Styria), Laakirchen (Austria), Germany and Estonia, and trades in cellulose, paper and recycled fibres.

In Paraguay, the local Zapag Group, which owns 47% of Paracel, and the Swedish Girindus Group are partners on board. Heinzel: “Many family businesses have joined forces.” In total, the project involves several billion dollars in investment volume, the Heinzel Group accounts for “several hundreds of millions of euros”.

Heinzel, who turns 45 today, is proud of the ecological aspect of the project: “So far 16,000 hectares have been planted, the target for the coming years is 100,000 hectares.” Ultimately, more than 100 million trees will be planted. planted.

From 2025, the factory should produce pulp – and generate a fair amount of extra income: “Because we are also a pulp dealer, we are talking about 700 to 800 million euros extra turnover for Heinzel!”