Projects

Revitalizing U.S. Market Pulp

Background

The global market for Market Pulps now exceeds 39 million tons involving over 35 producing companies in 22 countries. Over 100 different grades of pulps are produced from a variety of long and short fiber species. Since the decade of the 80s the emphasis has been in promoting single species pulps, plantation grown pulps, new fibers such as Acacia, Gmelina, Aspen, Radiata Pine and hybrid/cloned Brazilian Eucalyptus species. World class-sized mills, incorporating the newest technology in pulping, screening, cleaning and bleaching have become major suppliers around the world. In the case of Indonesia, Thailand, Chile and Brazil their lower labor and wood costs along with lower environmental restrictions have put them at a distinct advantage over our US market pulp mills. Not only are our domestic costs higher and our mills older and have lower tonnage capacities, but all U.S. mills must harvest from a broadly mixed fiber basket ruling out any chance of being on a par with the single species producers. These differences have put all U.S. Market Pulp mills at a distinct disadvantage and have caused them to lose market share in all overseas markets. It is becoming increasingly apparent that more non-traditional markets be created and, in addition, technology created that will permit the production of newer/functional value-added pulps.

The loss of market share overseas has been severely compounded by the closure of more than 35 non-integrated mills, located mostly in the northern and eastern parts of the U.S. These formerly profitable mills have been forced to permanently close because of their inability to develop newer, more profitable high performance specialty grades of paper. In every case Market Pulps were their basic raw material and although there are a great variety of pulps available, both buyers and sellers were generally unaware of each of these pulps' benefits, distinctive properties, unusual attributes, and, most importantly, the appropriate (often functional) end-use application and corresponding economic viability. Buyers, receiving little or no practical assistance from their pulp suppliers have resorted to buying the lowest priced commodity pulps. The production staff has then added to the problem by processing these pulps improperly or else using them in the wrong grades of paper. Sellers have, traditionally, simply offered their pulp on the basis of price and service with little thought as to how to advise their customers about benefits, how to use their pulps to the greatest advantage or to suggest those paper grades which would be best suited to each grade of Market Pulp. To correct these shortcomings, we must begin by refocusing the buyers and sellers' attention to the attributes of the various pulp species. An effective, lower cost means must be found to simultaneously educate non-technical pulp sellers, economy-minded pulp buyers as well as all the paper school students, who, upon graduation will assume positions of leadership in US paper mills.

The initial problem with which we are confronted is that there is no systematic analysis of the market trends (which, on the face of it, indicate the need to specialize) and little public information regarding companies that have been successfully producing specialized pulps. Moreover, there exists today no practical resource book that effectively includes comprehensive databases on the various species found in major market pulps along with each species' practical applications. This book can be developed only through a closely coordinated, collaborative effort involving both academia and an experienced industry executive who has had broad-based personal involvement on both the paper side as well as in Market Pulp sales. This one individual must be a thoroughly knowledgeable, highly trained pulp theoretician while the other must be an experienced paper industry pulp specialist with extensive market knowledge. Dr. Nanko, Mr. Hillman and Dr. Button provide just this expertise and are well qualified to develop and edit a Resource Book to identify, describe and apply all the essential information on each grade of Market Pulp and each one of the fiber species.

Literature review:
There are many publications available about market pulps [1-11]. They are mostly about supply, demand, economy, statistics, forecasting and market analysis. What is lacking, however, is a clear explanation of market trends using a theoretical framework. We believe that we can rely on the literature on economic theory and strategy to explain the market trends and educate the pulp industry. The economic theory that lends insights to the market trends in the pulp industry is referred to as the "rule of three." Essentially, this rule states that in almost any industry where there is free competition, if regulators allow consolidation, over time the three strongest and most efficient companies will control between 70% to 90% market share (e.g., Georgia Pacific, International Paper, and Weyerhaeuser; Wall Mart, K-Mart, and Target; Nike, Reebok, and Adidas etc.). These large players or generalists compete on economies of scale and produce the most commonly used products. The remaining market share (i.e., 10% to 30%) is taken by specialists who survive by catering to the needs of customers at either the high end or the low end of the market (i.e., niche markets).

On the face of it, the rule of three appears to be playing out in the pulp industry. For example, world class-sized mills in Indonesia, Thailand, Chile, China and Brazil are incorporating the newest technologies to become major suppliers of both pulp and paper to all the global markets. As mentioned earlier, their cost advantages along with lower environmental restrictions have put them at a distinct advantage over US pulp mills, which have seen their market share erode significantly. Unable to adapt, 35 previously profitable US paper mills have closed down in the past decade. The existing pulp manufacturers in the US are in a precarious situation. In order to survive profitably most of them will have to recast themselves as specialists and pursue non-traditional markets and/or produce newer/functional value-added pulps. So, while the literature on economics and strategy clearly predict the industry evolution and outline the strategies for survival this knowledge is not common among pulp manufacturers.

Part of the problem is that there is no single publication that provides technical information on the various market pulps, such as fiber performance and the most suitable application for each of the pulps. Without this knowledge it is impossible for US pulp manufacturers to recast themselves as specialists. It is for this reason that it is imperative that a publication that educates the pulp manufacturers regarding pulp applications and industry trends be written. The January issue of Pulp & Fiber Industries featured an article by Dave Hillman (a PI of this proposal) entitled MARKET PULP 101 - THE BASICS [12]. This article reviewed the basic grades of Market Pulps, a review of the variations such as flash-drying, rolls, wet-lap and a summary of the industry standards that apply to each. For example, the meaning of "Air Dry Percentage", the elimination of common problems such as nits and pills and the differences between the major single species hardwood pulps.
Admittedly, there are books that describe the morphology of various pulp fibers with micrographs [13-16]. These books were designed primarily as textbooks for fiber identification. There is no question that basic fiber identification skills are useful for various purposes. To enable pulp and paper manufactures to make an end product of consistent and acceptable quality, it is essential they know specifically what type of fibers they are using. The pulp mills using purchased roundwood or wood chips, or purchasing market pulps are concerned about the inherent qualities of the various pulp fiber species.

Fiber identification will provide a means to monitor the pulp quality. These books provide keys for the fiber identification and are useful for studying the fiber's morphology in their role as fiber analysts. However, even with the help of these existing books, fiber identification is, in itself, a very difficult discipline and it often takes many years to become a qualified fiber analyst. These books are also used as text books to teach pulp and paper students in their study of fiber morphology and identification. Possibly, a unique and commercially valuable use of these books in the paper industry will be for the forensic analysis of competitor's products to identify the kind of pulps that were used to develop the necessary properties. These books provide morphological information using mainly light micrographs. The data of fiber characteristics provided by these existing books, however, is limited. Most of them provide only average fiber length and fiber diameter information. Moreover, their data is relatively old and was not measured by modern instruments or technology, such as Fiber Quality Analyzer and Image Analysis in combination with microscopes. These books are insufficient to help the reader understand essential fiber properties. Isenberg's books of "Pulpwoods of the United States and Canada" [17,18] includes data of physical properties of wood and chemical composition of wood in addition to fiber length and fiber diameter data. "Textbook of Wood Technology" provides only anatomical information useful for the wood identification [19]. SEM micrographs of pulp fibers and paper surfaces can be found in "Papermaking Materials" but no fiber characteristics are included [20].

In conclusion, there are no publications or databases which include descriptions of comprehensive fiber properties of various wood pulps. The fiber length and fiber width data can be found relatively easily, however, such data is relatively old and has not been measured by the modern, state-of-the-art equipment. Moreover, fiber length values vary considerably due to various factors such as growing area, growing conditions, age of the tree, height of the tree, etc. Therefore, fiber length is specific to the pulp mills' geographical area even if they are making pulps form the same wood species as competitors in other parts of the country. There are pulps made of single wood species, however, but most of the market pulps made in North America are a mixture of more than two wood species. The most reliable production data of the specific pulps will be provided by pulp producers as their standard technical data sheets and Certificates of Analysis. The contents of such data sheets varies from pulp company to pulp company, so that comparison of this data among pulps will be not easy. They may use different equipment for the measurement of fiber length, fines content, coarseness and population (number of fibers in 1 gram of dry pulp), such as Kajaani FS100, Kajaani FS-200, or the Fiber Quality Analyzer (FQA). Therefore, we cannot compare the pulp company provided data at the same level. There is no database of fiber properties of the various species found in major market pulps.

Goals:
The purpose of the proposed research project is to analyze market trends in the pulp industry and provide a comprehensive database book focusing on the various market pulps to achieve the following goals:
1) Stimulate the market pulp industry in the US to refocus their strategies.
2) Provide value-oriented descriptions of the major market pulps.
3) Enable specialty paper mills to develop high performance, more profitable products.
The book should deliver the information as a practical, relevant "Resource Book" of the market pulps with highly instructive SEM micrographs of all the major pulp species accompanied by a detailed description of each fiber's distinctive properties, unusual attributes and most appropriate applications. Structure of the final products will be shown by SEM photographs to emphasize the importance of fiber morphology to the product performance.

References:
1. Market pulp, a comprehensive update on worldwide supply, demand and production trends for market pulp, report edited form the proceedings of 3rd International Pulp Symposium, Brussels, Belgium (1983)

2. Market pulp, proceedings of 5th International Pulp Symposium, Brussels, Belgium (1987)

3. Market pulp 6 : Preprints of 6th International Pulp Symposium, Brussels, Belgium (1989)

4. Market pulp 10 : Preprints of 10th International Pulp Symposium, Brussels, Belgium (1996)

5. PPI's 1994 market pulp survey, Pulp and Paper International (1994)

6. PPI's 1989 market pulp survey, Pulp & Paper International (1989)

7. PPI's 1993 market pulp survey, Pulp and Paper International (1993)

8. Conference proceedings of 1st Market Pulp Conference, Montreal, CA (1991)

9. Conference proceedings of 2nd Market Pulp Conference, Vancouver, B.C (1993)

10. Conference proceedings of 3rd International Market Pulp Conference, Chicago, IL (1995)

11. World Chemical Paper Grade Market Wood Pulp "Supply and Demand" AF&PA (1993)

12. Hillman, D., Market pulp 101 -Industry Basics-, Fiber and Pulp Industry, January, 32-36, (2002)

13. Strelis, I. and Kennedy, R.W., Identification of North American Commercial Pulpwoods and Pulp Fibers, University of Toronto Press (1967)

14. Papermaking Fibers, Edited by W.A.Cote, Syracuse University Press (1980)

15. Parham, R.A. and Gray, R.L., The Practical Identification of Wood Pulp Fibers, TAPPI Press (1990)

16. Marja-Sisko Ilvessalo-Pfaffi, Fiber Atlas -Identification of Papermaking Fibers- (1995)

17. Isenberg, I.H., Pulpwoods of the United States and Canada, Vol.1 -Conifers-, IPST (1943)

18. Isenberg, I.H., Pulpwoods of the United States and Canada, Vol.2 -Hardwoods-, IPST (1943)

19. Panshin, A.J. and de Zeeuw, C., Textbook of Wood Technology, McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1964)

20. Parham, R.A. and Kaustinen, H.M., Papermaking Materials, IPST (1974)