機械パルプと非木材パルプ 世界の機械パルプの市場と需給

Abstract

The world supply capacity of market mechanical pulp is about 3.3 million tons per year and the large portion of them is TMP from recent greenfield mills. The biggest supply country is Canada mostly shipping TMP. On the demand side, the biggest region is Europe while the demand from Asia is gradually increasing. There is no certain plan of capacity increase up to the year of 2000, but there is enough capacity to supply as the operating rate is currently only around 80%. The market is steadily expanding compared to the early 1990's and estimated to expand onwards partly substituting BKP. In Japan, there seems to be a growing trend that paper makers freely take advantage of the quality merit of each material rather than sticking to the pulp category in making paper. It helps to attract great attention to mechanical pulp.The price of mechanical pulp is generally lower and fluctuates less than BKP. The supply and demand will be gradually balanced by the demand increase on condition that is will be stimulated enough by more attention to its environmental advantage. technical improvements of paper makers, and a growing utilization of its characteristics (high opacity, bulkiness). For paper manufacturers, it will obviously be one of the most important theme how to use mechanical pulp efficiently.