GLG News by Kraft Pulp Experts

IP trails Domtar in UFS market share 25% to 35%.  Whereas Domtar has older mills at Kingsport, Johnsonburg and Rothschild, IP has newer, lower cost mills at Courtland and Selma, Alabama and Eastover, SC.   IP has now shut it's higher cost machine.....will Domtar follow by shutting down...

Even during the boom years of 2006-first half of 2008 it was predicted that as many as 90 paper machines in Western Europe would be shut down as well as a half dozen older/small pulp mills over the next 5 years.  The current economic crisis and accompanying business slowdown is forcing companies...

Producers had expected to produce 60 million mt in 2008 but now two dozen pulp mills are taking one and two week shutdowns to keep from building any further inventory.  Worldwide inventory is at 4.688 mmt - which is 44 days days-of-supply.  This pulp is located at the mills, in transit, or,...

While a nation's economy can go through normal business cycles, its middle class will continue to use convenience products with which they've become accustomed.  Examples are bath and facial tissue, paper towels, baby diapers, adult briefs, feminie hygiene, incontinent pads and air laid nonwoven...

The loss of logging capacity to an industry already battling wood supply issues (higher costs than almost any other area of the world) has serious implications for the future.  When sawmills shut down the flow of chips to nearby pulp mills ceases.  Now those pulp mills must resort to logging...

The most profitable pulp mills are in the low cost countries of Brazil, Chile and Indonesia.  These mills have low labor and low wood costs but they have an even more important advantage:   they are modern mills employing the latest technology having a very low maintenance liability...

Box plants were formerly strategically located near customers which required custom graphics, new/novel shapes and sizes and just-in-time service.  These smaller plants were nimble and placed great emphasis on customer service.  Now, however, economies of scale and new technology have caused...

This unbleached softwood mill was originally purchased about five years ago to supply UBK for Lee & Mann's several linerboard mills in China. Last year capital money was spent to upgrade it to a fully bleached NBSK mill.  Since the demand in China is still there, does this mean that Lee &...

This merger effectively produces a major consolidation in the Brazilian BEKP market pulp industry which has long been talked about as being beneficial.  Having so much capacity in the hands of one super-producer certainly would seem to lessen chances of rogue discounting during a down cycle. VCP...

A good measure of a country's growing middle class is the amount of disposable products being used annually. This involved facial tissue (all virgin), bath tissue (mostly recycled fiber), paper towels (can be either or a combination), baby diapers, adult briefs, feminine hygiene and incontinent pads. ...