Special paper products are on display at the fourth China International Specialty Paper Exhibition held in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/tianmunews.com]

The fourth China International Specialty Paper Exhibition was held on April 25 in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

More than 500 people, including China Specialty Paper Committee members, domestic and foreign specialty paper experts and representatives from industry associations and well-known enterprises, attended the exhibition.

As a paper-based functional material, special paper has replaced many traditional materials and is widely used in the medical, food, electrical and aviation fields.

As the national specialty paper industry base and Asia's largest decorative base paper production base, Quzhou is home to 85 above-designated-size papermaking enterprises.

Data showed that the city's special paper output reached 2 million metric tons in 2022, accounting for about 30 percent of China's total special paper industry output.

The output value of the city's special paper industry reached 27.52 billion yuan ($3.97 billion) in 2022, an increase of more than 10 billion yuan over the past eight years.

In addition, to achieve China's dual carbon goals, special paper enterprises have to focus on promoting high-end, digital, low-carbon and green transformation in future development.

"After the technological transformation, the energy consumption of our production line has been reduced by nearly 15 percent and production capacity has increased by nearly 70 percent," said Zhang Qi, chief engineer of Zhejiang Kaifeng New Materials Co Ltd.

The company's No 1 food wrap paper production line can reduce steam consumption by 60 percent after technological transformation. The amount of energy required to produce a ton of paper can be limited to 1,000 kilowatt-hours, and the annual output of special paper has increased from 12,000 tons to 20,000 tons.