Newsprint Industry Research Articles

Corporate Cataclysm: Abitibi Power & Paper and the Collapse of the Newsprint Industry, 1912–1946. Barry E.C. Boothman

<i>Corporate Cataclysm: Abitibi Power &amp; Paper and the Collapse of the Newsprint Industry, 1912–1946</i>. Barry E.C. Boothman

Margins-based planning applied to newsprint manufacturing

The North American newsprint industry is facing a difficult financial situation due to a major market decline. The application of supply chain management concepts could greatly help this struggling industry by enhancing the cost-effectiveness of operations. In this paper, an integrated tactical planning model based on optimization was used to exploit manufacturing flexibility in order to adapt production to changing market conditions. This model was applied to a real case study of a newsprint mill with overcapacity in its thermomechanical and deinking pulping lines. Results show that by using a margins-based planning model to identify better-adapted operating policies in case of varying wood chips and recycled paper prices, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) can be increased by up to 35%. The benefits of exploiting manufacturing flexibility were found to be more important in difficult market scenarios, highlighting its pertinence for providing more-robust planning approaches. Pulp and paper companies would benefit from using a margins-based planning model to manage the complexity of their operations in the face of market volatility.

A BOCR structure for privatisation effective criteria of Iran newsprint paper industry

The privatisation of the Iran newsprint industry has caused an increase in production and decrease in importation. Recognition of effective criteria in newsprint privatisation will accelerate privatisation of the industry. The goal of the research is expediting privatisation in the Iran newsprint industry through benefits, costs, opportunities and risk merits. We applied analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to solve the problem plus questionnaires and pair wise comparisons of the matrices by the experts have also been done in the research. The results show a decrease of budget deficiency, national debts (economic and financial), limiting rules, heavy taxes (economic and executive), encouragement possibility, absorption of foreign, internal investment (economic and financial) and limiting regulative costs (economic and financial) which are the most important sub criteria regarding benefits, costs, opportunities and risks merits, respectively.

“eyes wide open”: E. W. Backus and The Pitfalls of Investing in Ontario’s Pulp and Paper Industry, 1902-19321

It has long been argued that pulp and paper industrialists – especially Americans – could count on the cooperation of the provincial state as they established and expanded their enterprises in Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. The case of Edward Wellington Backus, an American industrialist, demonstrates that this paradigm does not explain the birth and dynamic growth of the newsprint industry in Ontario during this period. Backus rarely received the provincial government’s cooperation as he built paper plants in Fort Frances and Kenora. On the rare occasions when the politicians assisted him, they only did so within carefully prescribed limits. Backus’s story is significant because it indicates that it is time to reconsider the history of the political economy of Canada’s resource industries, at least as far as turning trees into paper is concerned.

A comparison of approaches towards measuring technical change: the case of Swedish newsprint production

The purpose of this paper is to estimate and analyze technical change in the Swedish newsprint industry over the time period 1974–1994. Using a variable Translog cost function as the basis, three different approaches toward estimating technical change are developed: (a) the Tornqvist index, (b) the standard time trend specification, and (c) the general index approach. The empirical results indicate that considerable differences exist between the three approaches, both in terms of their mean estimates of technical change and in their variation over time. Finally, the main determinants of technical change in the Swedish newsprint industry are identified and used to explain the three technical change indices within a simple econometric model. The results indicate that capacity utilization has been the dominant determinant of technical change, but that regulatory intensity and output prices are also important determinants.

A comparison of approaches towards measuring technical change: the case of Swedish newsprint production

The purpose of this paper is to estimate and analyze technical change in the Swedish newsprint industry over the time period 1974–1994. Using a variable Translog cost function as the basis, three different approaches toward estimating technical change are developed: (a) the Tornqvist index, (b) the standard time trend specification, and (c) the general index approach. The empirical results indicate that considerable differences exist between the three approaches, both in terms of their mean estimates of technical change and in their variation over time. Finally, the main determinants of technical change in the Swedish newsprint industry are identified and used to explain the three technical change indices within a simple econometric model. The results indicate that capacity utilization has been the dominant determinant of technical change, but that regulatory intensity and output prices are also important determinants.

Newsprint Mills in Australia: a story of shifting optimum location

The focus in this paper is on the shifting optimum location for a newsprint mill in Australia, factors influencing this shift, and the implications for a particular manufacturing site that is becoming increasingly outdated and out-of-place. Shipping times and schedules for high-volume, high-density tonnages of commodities such as newsprint have altered insufficiently over the last 60 years to affect competitive relations among various newsprint manufacturers around the world. With sea transport held roughly constant, changes in other aspects of the international newsprint industry can be investigated as part of unpacking the concept of globalisation. Globalisation for the former Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd meant becoming more open to new and closer competition, as well as becoming more exposed to acquisition by increasingly transnational enterprises. In the global newsprint industry at least, the world is less a smaller place than a more open one, with tonnes of newsprint moving at similar speeds to 60 years ago but among different and changing locations in terms of geography, ownership and market preference.

Newsprint Mills in Australia: A story of shifting optimum location

The focus in this paper is on the shifting optimum location for a newsprint mill in Australia, factors influencing this shift, and the implications for a particular manufacturing site that is becoming increasingly outdated and out-of-place. Shipping times and schedules for high-volume, high-density tonnages of commodities such as newsprint have altered insufficiently over the last 60 years to affect competitive relations among various newsprint manufacturers around the world. With sea transport held roughly constant, changes in other aspects of the international newsprint industry can be investigated as part of unpacking the concept of globalisation. Globalisation for the former Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd meant becoming more open to new and closer competition, as well as becoming more exposed to acquisition by increasingly transnational enterprises. In the global newsprint industry at least, the world is less a smaller place than a more open one, with tonnes of newsprint moving at similar speeds to 60 years ago but among different and changing locations in terms of geography, ownership and market preference.

Cultivar, sowing date and plant density studies of fibre hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in Tasmania

This paper reports on a 3-year agronomic study into fibre hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) conducted in Tasmania, Australia. The performance of selected hemp cultivars, and the responses to sowing date and plant density were investigated as part of a broad feasibility study to assess the potential of fibre hemp and flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) as sources of fibre for the Australian newsprint industry. Trials were conducted at separate sites in north-west and south-east Tasmania. Nine cultivars from the Ukraine, Hungary and France were examined in 2 separate trials. The Hungarian cultivars, Kompolti and Unico B, and the French cultivar Futura 77 had the highest single plot dry stem yields (up to 1500 g/m 2 ) and bark proportions (up to 40%). All the cultivars flowered toward the end of January, suggesting that the growing season in Tasmania could accommodate much later flowering and potentially higher yielding genotypes. Levels of the psychoactive agent, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol were consistently below the legal maximum of 0.35% (dry weight basis). Three sowing date trials were conducted across 2 seasons incorporating dates between mid September and mid November and a single autumn planting at the end of May. Interactions with cultivar and planting density were also considered. Stem and bark yield declined with delays in sowing after early–mid October in response to a decline in calendar days and thermal time from sowing to flowering. The response was most pronounced in sowings of Kompolti, which flowered within a short period and differed more substantially in durations to flowering. Earlier sowings were limited by premature flowering in response to shorter daylengths and by poor drainage at one of the 2 trial sites. The success of early sowings in Tasmania would appear to depend on finding cultivars less sensitive tophotoperiod, and cultivation on well drained sites. A further trial was conducted to investigate the influence of plant density on hemp yields. Treatments included densities from 50 to 300 plants/m 2 . Plant density declined with crop growth across all treatments and was most pronounced for populations of 200 and 300 plants/m 2 . Final harvest stem yield responded in a parabolic manner to plant density, with maximum yields at about 110 plants/m 2 . Differences in the percentage of the long, high quality bark fibre at final harvest were generally small and not significant. However, regression analysis of the response of bark percentage suggested a linear decline with increasing initial density.

Agronomic studies of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) in south-eastern Australia

This paper reports on field agronomy studies into flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) conducted in Tasmania, Australia from 1994 to 1997. These studies investigated the performance of selected cultivars, and responses to sowing date, plant density and irrigation. The work formed part of a feasibility study assessing the potential of fibre hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) and flax as sources of fibre for the Australian newsprint industry. Two cultivar evaluation trials were conducted at the University of Tasmania Farm, Cambridge, in Tasmania’s south-east. One of these included 7 European and Australian flax cultivars, and the other, 4 mucilage linseed cultivars. The European flax cultivars yielded significantly more stem and bark fibre than the Australian flax cultivars. Of the former group, Ariane (841 g/m 2 ) and Marina (883 g/m 2 ) performed the best in terms of stem yield production, while Viking had comparable bark yields to these 2 cultivars. With the exception of cv. Kreola (543 g/m 2 ), which produced comparable stem yields to the Australian flax cultivars, the linseed cultivars were short and produced relatively low stem yields. Interestingly, seed yields (149–194 g/m 2 ) were not superior to those for the flax cultivars (156–218 g/m 2 ). While offering little dual-purpose seed/fibre potential, they may supply a future niche market for seed production. Three other trials were conducted to investigate the response of flax to seeding rate and sowing date, and the interactions between seeding rate, sowing date and irrigation availability. Autumn sowings of flax gave higher yields of both stem and seed compared with winter and spring sowings. Reasonable stem and seed yields were achieved from dryland cropping of flax. However, good results from such rainfed crops in Tasmania will depend on autumn sowing and good rainfall during winter and spring seasons. There were clear yield benefits from irrigation between early November and January, when the amount and distribution of rainfall was poor. The selection of an optimum seeding rate will depend on the sowing date and involve a compromise between maximising yield and minimising potential losses from lodging. The decreased occurrence of lodging with winter and spring sowings in this study, suggests that later sowings can accommodate higher seeding rates.

John Cabot's Legacy in Newfoundland: Resource Depletion and the Resource Cycle

In this article an alternative reading is presented to the ‘heroic’ Bristol version of John Cabot's voyage of discovery. Cabot is viewed as a prototypical venture capitalist who inaugurated 500 years of resource exploitation in Newfoundland, as illustrated by the record of Newfoundland's two leading industries: fishing and newsprint. This era culminated with the collapse and closure of the ground fishery, and fibre supply shortages in the newsprint industry. Further resource depletion was eventually halted by state intervention, and the imposition of strict regulatory practices. The discourse of sustainablity is put into question by this record: wealth and political power derived from resource use, coupled with the difficulty of distinguishing between natural variations in resource yields and those due to depletion, have contributed to ineffective resource management. In direct consequence, irreparable damage has been done to the resource base.

Restructuring in the Canadian Newsprint Industry

This special issue of the Canadian Geographer presents five articles examining the wave of restructuring and the associated changes in the labour process that have swept through Canada's pulp and paper industry in recent years. The allocation of an entire issue to this topic is, we believe, justified by the importance of the industry to the Canadian economy, by the dramatic restructuring that has occurred to it since the early 1980s, and by the centrality of geography to an understanding of these events. During the period covered by these articles, there have been major changes in the location of pulp and paper operations, in their inputs to production, in the organization and technology of production within the mills, in the relations between production units, in the nature of work and employment, in the products produced, and in the markets served.

In Search of Competitive Efficiency: Labour Process Flexibility in Canadian Newsprint Mills

This paper focuses on the strategies for production and work reorganization pursued in the Canadian newsprint industry during the 1990s. Many newsprint mill managers view new pulping technologies and increased labour process flexibility as the important keys to success in their never-ending quest to remain competitive in the U.S. market. These strategies are discussed in the context of two underlying themes: the nature of the particular competitive pressures faced by Canadian newsprint producers in the early 1990s and the specific nature of the labour process in newsprint mills. Evidence points to the central importance of achieving functional labour flexibility in newsprint mills and to the fact that numerical labour flexibility is not a viable strategy, given the continuous-process nature of the industry. The Economics of Production, Technological Change, and Cost Competitiveness in the Newsprint Industry Work Practices and Labour Conventions in the Newsprint Industry Flexibility and the Quest for Competitive Efficiency in Canadian Newsprint Mills

High-Performance Organizations and Employment Flexibility: a Case Study of in situ Change at the Powell River Paper Mill, 1980–1994

Throughout virtually all mass production industries in North America, including the Canadian newsprint industry, a significant theme of restructuring involves a transition from ‘Fordist’ to more ‘flexible’ methods of production and employment. In this paper, shifts towards smaller, more flexible employment conditions are assessed from the perspective of a model of ‘high-performance organizations’. In this model, employment flexibility is defined in terms of the blurring of the boundaries between management and workers and by continual investment in skill promotion in the pursuit of a polyvalent workforce. In practice, such issues are subject to labour-management bargaining, the outcomes of which are uncertain. Empirically, this paper provides a case study of bargaining over employment flexibility, specifically at the Powell River paper mill, to assess the extent to which the standards of the high-performance model are being achieved.

Issues in the Design of Recycling Policy: the Case of Old Newspapers

This study investigates key issues in the design of policy to promote recycling of old newspaper (ONP). Empirical evidence that policies to increase supply will not give rise to a large increase in ONP recycling is presented. Also, questions in the design of alternative policy measures are addressed first, by calculating baseline recycling rates for the U.S. newsprint industry. It is found that, all things remaining the same, the newsprint industry will reach a recycling rate of about 40% by the year 2000. This suggests that the legislatively-determined recycling targets are often insufficient to induce levels of ONP recycling beyond those that would occur in the absence of government intervention. This study also includes analysis of other factors that influence the rate of ONP recycling in order to pinpoint the variables that will, if targeted by policy, lead to the largest increase in ONP recycling.

The strategic capacity-expansion model for a newsprint firm

It is pointed out that capacity expansion decisions in a capital-intensive industry determine to a large extent the fate of a firm, especially in an oligopolistic industry facing cyclical commodity markets where all firms endure the consequences of mistaken decisions, not only their own but also those of others. A model for helping firms with their capacity and production decisions in the newsprint industry in North America is presented. The model explicitly considers strategic interactions between firms in the industry, both in making short-term production decisions and in deciding on the expansion of capacity. The Nash equilibrium-solution concept is used to identify actions to be taken by the competing firms. Results validating the model are presented and an example of its use for strategic experiments is provided.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An Empirical Model of Capacity Expansion and Pricing in an Oligopoly with Barometric Price Leadership: A Case Study of the Newsprint Industry in North America

The weak form of oligopolistic coordination in pricing and capacity expansion of the North American newsprint industry is examined. A dynamic model consisting of demand, price and regional capacity equations is estimated for the years 1965 to 1986. The reference price in the industry is hypothesized to be based on either adjusted full-cost pricing or mark-up over marginal cost pricing. Neither hypothesis was rejected confirming that either pricing rule better describes industry practices than marginal cost pricing. The determinant of mark-up levels was the industry operating rate. The model also showed that capacity expansion was negatively related to the concentration ratio.

An Interregional Analysis of the North American Newsprint Industry

An economic model of the North American newsprint industry forecasts, over long time periods and by regions, the amount of newsprint produced, consumed, its price, and the quantities transported between regions. The model forecasts the same data for the main raw materials, pulpwood and wastepaper. The core of the model is a recursive quadratic programming system that simulates the behavior of a competitive industry. The model has been used to make 10-year forecasts of key variables describing the industry, based on specific scenarios on economic and demographic growth in the various regions of North America.

Economic Consequences of Recycling for the Canadian Newsprint Industry

The probable future structure of the Canadian newsprint industry is outlined and the likely economic consequences to Canadian newsprint producers of the increased consumption of newsprint made within the United States from recycled fiber is demonstrated. The overmature nature of the Canadian newsprint industry is shown. Old mills and plant capital, stabilized markets, asset fixity, and real cost increases are given as major short-run structural weaknesses, especially for eastern Canadian mills, which make the industry susceptible to marginal market shifts such as competition from recycled newsprint paper.Densely populated areas adjacent to eastern Canada are shown to attract not only the output from Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes but also the secondary fiber newsprint mills. Such an intrusion in the market, while marginal in effect, only magnifies the structural weaknesses of a mature industry.Two factors much more critical to the structure of the Canadian newsprint industry appear to be the probable movement up and to the right along the industry's long-run cost curve (real cost increases) and mill capacity increases within the United States. Changes in these two factors should overshadow the influence of recycling at least through 1985.

The Canadian Newsprint Industry

The Canadian Newsprint Industry