Pulp
Market, Supplier, Risk and
Competitive Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

Global Pulp Market Overview

• Many suppliers like Kemira have announced capacity expansions to meet the long-term demand. Tissue demand is expected  to grow by 6 percent between 2010 and 2020 in the emerging markets, while developed markets are to witness a growth rate of 1.4 percent in the same period
• The hardwood market is expected to be firmer than softwood during the forecast period. Due to significant capacity additions in the latter and a diminishing demand, hardwood is expected to gain a lot of traction in the coming years

Drivers

• The personal care and hygiene industry that is using increasing quantities of pulp and paper for the products is a major driver. Some of the products are wipes, toilet paper, and paper towels.
• The increasing use of packaging using corrugated pulp-based materials is a major consumer of paper & pulp.
• The paper & pulp market is also encouraging research & development to be more environmentally conscious by trimming energy usage and improving the yield of production units.
• The environmental-friendly changes are also looking to replace plastic products with pulp-based biodegradable options.
• Rapid urbanization and the increased penetration of the FMCG sector and all other industries that use packaging materials are a major driver of the industry.
• The growing popularity of eCommerce has seen a demand in transport packaging materials.

Constraints

• The industry demand is fast outpacing production.
• Graphic papers such as newsprint are facing a severe fall in demand.
• Some industries are replacing paper-based packaging with reusable plastic containers to be more sustainable.
• The resources for softwood pulp dictate the prices and therefore demand.
• Lighter packaging materials that are not pulp-based are being developed.

Global Pulp Market Overview

• Many suppliers like Kemira announced capacity expansions to meet the long-term demand. Tissue demand was expected to grow by 6 percent between 2010 and 2020 in the emerging markets, while developed markets are to witness a growth rate of 1.4 percent in the same period.
• The hardwood market is expected to be firmer than softwood during the forecast period. Due to significant capacity additions in the latter and a diminishing demand, hardwood is expected to gain a lot of traction in the coming years.
• Both hardwood pulp and softwood pulp have seen great changes in pricing with a strong upward trend

Downstream Demand Analysis

• Global pulp demand increased by 2 percent in 2017, on the back of accelerating consumption of tissue and packaging paper, offsetting declining demand for printing and writing grades.
• The world's demand for all tissue paper hit 37.1 million tons in 2017, with growth in premium and ultra-premium grades, the ones that use 100 percent market pulp. Bathroom tissue is the biggest growth area, with China using so much more of it than before, along with its growing demand for other items, such as paper towels, wipes, facial tissue, and diapers.
• Demand is also strong in some other emerging markets, like Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, and Mexico, and these products use virgin fiber and is more than compensating for the reduced demand for printing and writing grade pulp.
• The Asian demand is also strong for Old Corrugated Cardboard (OCC). Global pulp demand is also receiving a boost because paper recycling is about to peak, with developed economies in North America, Europe, and Japan, Consuming less printed paper than in the past.

Non-wood Pulp Production

• Non-wood pulp produced using sustainable and environment-friendly methods will also become a fiber source for pulp in North America and Europe.
• Forestry regulations and faster growth of non-wood fibers, compared to wood trees, will drive the technology development in the non-wood fiber pulping process.
• The non-wood portion of paper typically varies from 20 percent to 90 percent and can be up to 100 percent, depending on the grade of paper and required quality.
• There are many possible combinations and they can be adjusted to meet the market requirements.

Pulp Market Overview

Raw Material Availability

• There are abundant plantations, predominantly softwood fibers. There are enough mills with the superior technology in the region to convert fiber into pulp.

International Trade

• North American players primarily export their softwood fiber to China and European regions. The export of pulp to China is expected to decrease in the future due to high inventory levels and lower domestic prices.

Major Suppliers

• GP Cellulose, Paper Excellence, Weyerhaeuser, Domtar, West Fraser, Resolute Products, and Canfor Pulp are the major pulp suppliers in North America.

Industrial Structure

• The North American pulp industry is highly competitive with a high degree of backward integration and less differentiation, in terms of products. Currently, it operates with excess capacity.

Future Outlook

• The domestic demand might not be as promising as the export market. The US market majorly depends on the economic and industrial conditions in China.

Why You Should Buy This Report

The report provides information about the global and regional pulp market trends including a regional market snapshot of Europe, North America, and Asia. It lists out the industry drivers and constraints, pulp prices overview, pulp prices trends, and gives Porter’s five forces analysis of the pulp market. It also details important facts and figures both regionally and globally of the paper & pulp, fluff pulp, wood pulp, hardwood pulp, and softwood pulp aspects of the pulp markets. The historic pulp prices report facts and figures as well as the pulp prices forecast for the near future are explained with the reasons why. The report does a cost structure and pricing analysis and provides information about industry trends and best practices The report lists and gives a profile of the key players in the industry. It details the innovations and new research and developments that will potentially have a big effect on the pulp industry.