North and South

摘要

Nearly five years ago I commented on the surge in hardwood pulp plantations in the southern hemisphere (PaperAge, March/April 2007). It still continues on a massive scale in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile — with and without foreign partners — mainly Stora Enso, UPM and M-real, all Finnish. Those three companies are shutting some papermaking capacity in Finland and Sweden, but are retooling their pulp mills as "energy platforms" or biofuel plants. In this development they work with energy, chemical and transportation indus- tries. Some analysts suggest that in the northern hemisphere in Europe pulp has become too expensive to make paper. We all know wood costs are high and that extraction is expensive, so the sensible thing now is to get the most out of pulp and that includes its by-products, i.e. chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food additives. Nestle of Switzerland is the latest conglomerate to look at pulp for wood chemicals as a source material for its food products.