Paperboard Industry Research Articles

Forestry and wood-based industries in the Australian economy: A computable general equilibrium analysis

Summary The ORANI model of the Australian economy is used to quantify the short-run impact of a range of economic changes on the forestry and wood-based industries. The following economic changes are scrutinised: increased costs in the Forestry and Logging, Sawmill Products (including woodchips), and Pulp, Paper and Paperboard industries; increased afforestation; higher woodchip exports; higher real labour costs to employers; and an expansion in real absorption (ie, the real sum of household consumption, private investment and government expenditure). Industry-specific policies are revealed to have relatively small macro-economic effects when contrasted with the projection of economy-wide labour cost and demand increases. The major finding is that indirect general equilibrium effects can be significant, especially those pertaining to Australia's international competitiveness. Most previous inter-industry studies of economic impacts on the forestry and wood-based industries have used more restrictive model...

Growth and decline of the paper industry: an econometric analysis of US regions

An explanation was sought of the different growth of the paper and paperboard industries in regions of the United States. To that end, a theory of regional demand and supply was formulated. Elasticities of regional production with respect to important supply and demand factors were then calculated by econometric methods, with data for the period 1950–78. These elasticities were used, together with the observed average annual percentage changes of the corresponding variables, to determine the contribution each had on the growth of production. The results indicated that demand was the major factor causing the differences in growth rates. The rapid growth of paper and paperboard production in the regions of the South and West was spurred mostly by high economic and demographic growth in their market area. Supply (cost) factors, and the price of paper substitutes, were found to have played a minor role in comparison.

Occupational exposure to chemical agents in the plywood industry.

As part of an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) international epidemiological study of workers in the pulp and paper industry, previously unpublished exposure measurements were assembled in a database. This article summarizes the results of 3,873 measurements carried out in the production departments of paper and paperboard mills and recycling plants in 12 countries. In the paper and paperboard mills, most of the agents were measured in the pulping and refining departments and in on-machine coating and winding of paper/paperboard. Exposures to asbestos, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, fungal spores, bacteria, nitrogen dioxide, minerals dusts, paper dust, sulphuric acid and different solvents sometimes exceeded exposure limit values. In the re-pulping and de-inking departments of recycling plants high exposures to formaldehyde, fungal spores, bacteria and paper dust were observed. High exposures to asbestos, bioaerosols, carbon monoxide and paper dust were found in many departments; ammonia, formaldehyde, mineral and paper dust and solvents were found in coating machines; and diphenyl and polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) were found in some special circumstances. Measurements in the newsprint and uncoated paper machine departments revealed only a few elevated exposures. In nearly all departments, measurements of epichlorohydrin, PCBs, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and mercaptans tended to be low, often even below their detection limits. In spite of some uncertainties in the measurement data, the study provides new insights into the level and variation of occupational exposures of production workers in the paper and paperboard industry.

Productivity growth in the paper and paperboard industries: a variable cost function approach

Annual indices of total productivity growth were calculated for the paper and paperboard industries of the United States between 1958 and 1981. The procedure relied on the hypothesis that each industry minimizes variable costs, conditional on the level of the remaining inputs. The variable cost functions revealed short-run economies of scale but long-run diseconomies, suggesting inefficient capacity expansion. Derived demands for energy, labor, and materials were inelastic. Demand for energy was much more responsive to price than labor and materials. There were substantial substitution possibilities between energy and materials and between labor and materials, but none between labor and energy. The productivity indices that were computed showed a slightly increasing rate of productivity growth between 1958 and 1973, with a marked slowdown thereafter. This slowdown was explained by the rise in the price of energy. Average productivity growth was three to four times faster in the paper than in the paperboard industry between 1958 and 1981. This difference was partly explained by higher energy intensiveness and lower labor productivity growth in the paperboard industry.

Impact of world economic and demographic growth on forest-products consumption and wood requirements

A model fitted to cross-sectional observations is proposed which links the growth of consumption of structural wood materials and paper and paperboard to the economic and demographic growth of developed and developing economies. It was found that the response of consumption per capita to a specific growth of income per capita decreases systematically as the level of consumption attained increases. The consumption functions, for both groups of products, differed significantly for high-income and low-income countries. A set of input-output relationships was also established to estimate the amounts of wood pulp and industrial roundwood required to produce specific amounts of structural and paper materials. Those relationships have significantly shifted during the period 1961–1971, indicating an improvement in the efficiency of raw-material usage by the wood-products industries. The full model was applied to calculate the levels of consumption and of raw-material requirements consistent with Timbergen's indicative world plan (Timbergen, J. 1976. Development and environment aims: an intuitive view. In World modeling: a dialogue. Editedby C. W. Churchman and R. O. Mason. North Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 55–61). Given Timbergen's targets for world economic and demographic growth, a considerable improvement would occur in the balance of consumption between developed and developing countries but consumption per capita of industrial roundwood equivalent would still be three times higher in developed countries by the year 2010. The main growth of industrial roundwood consumption would occur in the paper and paperboard industry which would consume 65% of the world output by the end of the period. Developing countries would by that time become the main market for paper and paperboard products.

Overseas Capital Expansion by the American Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Industries and the Resuondinc Attitudes of the European Colleague Enterprises (Part IV)

Overseas Capital Expansion by the American Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Industries and the Resuondinc Attitudes of the European Colleague Enterprises (Part IV)

Overseas Capital Expansion by the American Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Industries and the Responding Attitudes of the European Colleague Enterprises (PartIV)

Overseas Capital Expansion by the American Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Industries and the Responding Attitudes of the European Colleague Enterprises (PartIV)

Overseas Capital Expanssion by the American Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Industries and the Responding Attitudes of the European Colleague Interprises (Part III)

Overseas Capital Expanssion by the American Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Industries and the Responding Attitudes of the European Colleague Interprises (Part III)