Different roles for bleached hardwood pulps: integrated and market pulp operations have different uses for hardwood pulps.

Hardwood pulps have many uses in papermaking. Bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP) finds primary use in coated and uncoated printing and writing papers. For these uses, buyers want good printing properties and strength. Strength properties are important for producers of uncoated woodfree grades who do not use softwood in the furnish and for those who use hardwood pulp in multi-ply carton boards.

The main hardwoods--Eucalyptus, birch, aspen, mixed northern hardwoods, mixed southern hardwoods, mixed tropical hardwoods, and Acacia-all have different characteristics. Large differences exist between different Eucalyptus species and between mixed hardwoods. These include differences in strength, printing properties, yield, and the method for beating the pulp to enhance desired characteristics. The number, size, and shape of fibers and the thickness of the fiber wall also play important roles.

FIBER ROLE

Birch pulp is the strongest hardwood pulp grade but does not provide the opacity and formation of Eucalyptus and Acacia pulp. It is a good pulp when a combination of strength and printing quality is necessary such as in paperboard grades. Acacia has the highest number of fibers per gram. The collapsibility of the fibers gives the paper a good surface. Acacia pulp has lower strength, light-scattering ability, and bulk compared with Eucalyptus. Acacia demands more drying capacity. Eucalyptus pulp is suitable for tissue products due to its softness.

Most Eucalyptus market pulp sold to North America finds use in tissue production. Elsewhere, woodfree printing and writing papers are the primary uses for Eucalyptus. Aspen pulp has increasing use as chemical pulp and BCTMP in coated printing papers to provide opacity and dimensional stability.

END USES

The major differences between hardwood pulps depend partly on their special features and partly on the final markets. Even for Eucalyptus pulps from different producing regions and from different species, end uses vary considerably. Latin American Eucalyptus has common use in tissue. Iberian pulps have large use for decorative and laminating paper products.

The use of BHKP in integrated paper production differs from that of market BHKP. Significant differences also exist across geographical regions. Some of the rapid increase in Asian demand for BHKP is due to chemical wood pulp replacing non-wood pulps. Uncoated woodfree paper is the primary grade affected. The changes in the furnish of coated woodfree papers toward BHKP have increased the share of woodfree papers among the end-use sectors for market BHKP.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Another end-use sector where BHKP for market pulp is higher than in integrated use is tissue. The growing popularity of Eucalyptus pulp to add softness and brightness to high-quality consumer tissue products has boosted the use of BHKP market pulp in the tissue sector-especially in the United States.

Figure 1 shows quality vs. break-down of BHKP capacity. In coated wood-containing papers, the share of market BHKP is lower than in integrated use, but it will grow in the future.

Cartonboard use is another area where integrated use of BHKP is higher than the market use. Major regional differences include the following:

* In Europe, the use of BHKP in wood-containing publication papers is low. This is due partly to the classification but primarily to the increased use of hardwood BCTMP in Europe as the hardwood pulp component.

* In Europe, the use of BHKP in carton boards is high. Birch pulp is very suitable for carton board production.

* In North America, the use of BHKP is higher in tissue and other paper and board and lower in woodfree papers than in other regions.

JAAKKO POYRY MANAGEMENT CONSULTING 

Note: This article is part of a series by Jaakko Poyry Management Consulting. Tarrytown, New York, USA, which provides marketing and consulting services to the global pulp and paper industry. For more information, contact Soile Kilpi by email at [e-mail], or by phone at [phone].