Starting on January 6, 2025, there was a flurry of activity at Suzano’s Três Lagoas mill in Brazil as ANDRITZ carried out maintenance work on the largest general shutdown in its history at Suzano’s Três Lagoas unit (MS). The shutdown covered both line 1 (H1) and line 2 (H2) production lines where a total of 413 professionals were mobilized in an operation that engaged all service areas of ANDRITZ. The shutdown represented the highest volume of activities ever executed by the services team.
Jonas Zolnir, Project Director, Service Division, ANDRITZ, says, “This project actually began a year earlier when we initiated the discussion and planning for the 2025 mill shutdown scope. The alignments were finalized by our Service Product Groups and Service Sales team in coordination with Suzano’s Três Lagoas team. Planning began in October 2024, shortly after the scope was defined.”
For the first time, the drum was removed from the vat for recovery.
ANDRITZ played a major part in what was a huge operation, with 123 partner companies working at the site and a peak work force of 2,215 workers with 5,328 scheduled maintenance orders across both lines. Furthermore, the project was supported by 40 specialist employees from other Suzano units.
Augusto César, Executive Manager, Recovery and Utilities, Suzano Três Lagoas says, “The technical and commercial discussions for ANDRITZ’s responsibilities began several months ahead of the shutdown. This early planning was key to its success as ANDRITZ is one of our main business partners actively working across all areas of both mills. The company consistently assigns its top professionals to support and follow up on the services, which is a critical factor in the success of this long-standing partnership.”
Over the course of two months, team coordination ensured that each stage of the project would be completed safely, on time, and at the level of quality expected by the customer. Specialists from various areas were involved, including woodyard, drying, cooking, fiberline, recovery boiler, and white liquor plant. ANDRITZ teams performed 27 main activities in almost all mill areas.
Suzano’s Três Lagoas mill
“One of the main challenges is choosing the ideal date for our general shutdown," says César. “Currently, we have shutdowns scheduled not only across all our own units, but also at other pulp mills throughout Brazil. This overlap creates scheduling conflicts with our key suppliers, which directly impacts the availability and quality of skilled labor.
“Another challenge is the distance between our unit and the main service providers, which leads to high mobilization/demobilization costs and potential delays in the arrival of workers, equipment, and materials.”
For ANDRITZ, these challenges were firmly dealt with, starting with mobilization and preparation for the major activities during the shutdown. The H2 shutdown preparation started on January 6th, right after the end of the year and new year holidays. However, before the commencement date, there was a lot of planning and hard work from the ANDRITZ Field Services Coordination team who needed to organize and send to the mill a huge amount of material, tools, devices, work equipment, consumables, and containers.
Once the shutdown project began, then the real work started. “One of the key highlights of this shutdown was the work performed on the DD-Washer,” says Zolnir. “For the first time, the drum was removed from the vat for recovery, replacing the traditional method that used the washer's own drive structure. This approach enhanced safety, reduced execution time, and made the system more stable and reliable. A dedicated team of 34 professionals handled the task, addressing critical issues such as cracks and liquor leaks that could have impacted production if left unresolved.”
César adds, “Several critical activities were carried out to comply with NR-13 standards for our pressure vessels, with special attention to our two chemical recovery boilers. Noteworthy tasks included the chemical cleaning of our CR-01, upgrade of the DCS systems in both mills, and replacement of the DD Washer 44 drum in the bleaching area of Mill, which was performed by ANDRITZ.
“Other major activities included the installation of a new log feeder for line 3 in the wood yard, internal inspection of digesters, complete overhaul of the 16 DD-Washers across both mills, and replacement/inspection of rolls on the three drying machines.”
Multiple safety actions were implemented daily by the leadership at the mill and partner companies, with the aim of zero safety incidents. Environmental aspects and impacts were also considered in every executed activity.
“Throughout the shutdown, safety remained the top priority for ANDRITZ,” says Zolnir. “Training sessions, daily alignments with the customer, ongoing inspections, and close monitoring by the quality team ensured full compliance with standards during critical operations. The result was '0' accidents.”
Jonas Zolnir
Project Director, ANDRITZ Service Division
Line 2 was restarted after 15 days of shutdown, while line 1 was restarted after 17 days due to chemical cleaning of the recovery boiler. Ramp-up performance is measured by PTP (theoretical production loss) 15 days after start-up. After this shutdown, the mill achieved the best ramp-up performance for H1 since it began operations in 2007, with a PTP of 0.34 days. A good ramp-up is typically around 1.5 days of PTP. Ramp-up performance for H2 was below the historical average due to the expanded maintenance scope of recovery boiler 2 following inspection findings.
The improvement of these indicators has only been possible through the development of numerous control processes, which Suzano has continuously enhanced over the years. Examples include: maintenance checklists for 100% of activities; pre-start-up operational checklists for each area to identify restrictions; a dedicated shutdown coordinator supported by a team of operators released from regular duties 1.5 months in advance; a real-time monitoring app for all shutdown activities; daily alignment meetings with leadership for each task; designated nighttime area leads; and daily 12-hour forward planning reports to streamline overnight work.
“In this latest shutdown cycle, ANDRITZ successfully completed 100% of the scheduled scope within the defined timelines,” comments César. “Although at times we faced major challenges, close collaboration between Suzano and ANDRITZ ensured that the right solutions were quickly found. We recognized a strong sense of partnership and cooperation from both sides.
“Another highlight was the fact that ANDRITZ recorded zero accidents throughout the 32-day shutdown period, which reinforced the strength of this partnership.”
Zolnir concludes, “The success of this shutdown project is down to a coordinated effort by the Três Lagoas team and the combined ANDRITZ teams of product groups, field service, order execution, and the Araucaria Service Center. All services were delivered in line with the customers’ three key pillars of safety, quality, and deadlines. There were no reworks or production losses due to ANDRITZ interventions.
“This was more than just a successful project; this general shutdown demonstrated ANDRITZ’s ability to deliver complex operations efficiently, with skilled teams, strong infrastructure, and a clear focus on customer needs.”
Specialized instruments, analytical tools, and highly skilled specialists for all the production technologies in wood yards, sawmills, pulp mills, and power plants are available from a single global organization.
ANDRITZ provides services for paper mill production equipment, such as screw presses, disc filters, refiners, and conveying equipment, regardless of the original equipment manufacturer.
A typical shutdown takes between 7 and 12 days and represents between 25% and 30% of the annual maintenance cost, which is why ANDRITZ developed the Shutdown Management Service to help customers improve the outage performance.
A ANDRITZ Brasil Ltda, com sede em Curitiba (PR), é parte de um grupo com mais de 170 anos de história e reconhecimento mundial como líder no fornecimento de sistemas, equipamentos e serviços para a produção de celulose, papel. Presente no Brasil desde 1992, a empresa conta com cerca de 600 colaboradores e se destaca pela execução de projetos de grande porte no modelo EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction).
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