London Pulp Week shows pulp markets have so far been robust in the current crisis-ridden year

摘要

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated trends that first emerged many years ago. This became clear on the occasion of the pulp symposium, which for the first time was organised in the form of a video conference by Hawkins Wright. Even despite continuing weakness of important customer segments such as the graphic paper industry, the global pulp market has proven its resilience so far, not least thanks to lively demand from China. Walter Schalka, CEO of Suza-no, described the opportunities that presented themselves thanks to new customer segments for pulp. Oliver Lansdell, industry analyst at British consultancy Hawkins Wright, outlined the trend seen during the past twelve years. Printing and writing papers - which used to be the largest customer segment for bleached pulp - had still accounted for a share of 47 per cent of the entire market in 2008, while this share was estimated to total only 24 per cent in 2020, he said. In contrast, tissue had raised its share from 25 per cent in 2008 to 42 per cent in 2020, the analyst expects. Slight growth had also been recorded in the segments of packaging, specialty paper and fluff pulp.