Tuesday, 20 July 2010 12:00

Pulp and paper industry investment picking up

Rate this item
(0 votes)

Ten new plants are due to be built in Brazil with and output likely to surpass 20 million tons by 2020. The industry's positive situation will have a favorable effect on ABTCP 2010, the event held by the Brazilian Pulp and Paper Technical Association

ABTCP 2010 - which includes the events ABTCP-TAPPI 2010- 43rd International Pulp and Paper Congress and Exhibition and ABTCP-TISSUE 2010 - 1st Latin American Tissue Symposium and Exhibition to be held October 4-6 in São Paulo, will be held in the context of booming investments in the sector.

Many projects had been put "on hold" due to the financial crisis, but now the market is favorable again and new players are coming to Brazil with plans for new plants that may well double pulp output by mid-2020.

Brazil will have 10 new plants by mid-2020 with an annual capacity of over 20 million tons, reports Carlos Farinha e Silva, one of Brazil's top pulp and paper specialists, vice president of Finnish consultants Pöyry, and ABTCP committee member. Brazil's economic development bank (BNDES) has announced R$ 19 billion in lending facilities for private-sector projects until the year 2013.
"All the investments that were postponed due the international economic crisis are starting to take shape and grow as of this year," he emphasized. "Brazil is doing very well and tracking the recovery trend in the world's pulp and paper industry, with the added advantage of having the world's best eucalyptus plantations." In addition to new projects underway, Brazil's output is due to rise between 2010 and 2011 on the basis of updating existing production lines.
With annual output at 14 million tons of pulp, Brazil is well placed to meet the growth in world demand - between 3 and 4% a year - and has already overtaken Sweden and Finland in volume terms.

Latin America's pulp output is expected to average 4% annual growth, with paper volume growing at an average 3.1%. Demand for paper is driven by the tissue (toilet) and packaging segment, in which Brazil's growth is likely to outstrip the world average with over 4% a year for a number of years.

Pulp prices on the international market are also positive factors. When plants in Chile shut down in February this year, due to the earthquake there, the market price per ton of pulp soared to over US$ 900 from US$ 450 in October of the previous year. Farinha adds that "with Chile's plants coming back to normal, prices may well steady at around US$ 800 per ton."

The favorable outlook for the sector includes around 2,000 new jobs, with another 10,000 outsourcers as construction work peaks. So this is the optimistic background for Latin America's top pulp and paper event, ABTCP 2010, which includes the events ABTCP-TAPPI 2010 - 43rd Pulp and Paper Congress and Exhibition, which ABTCP will be holding in partnership with TAPPI, its counterpart in the United States, and ABTCP-TISSUE 2010 -1st Latin American Tissue Symposium and Exhibition - focusing on production and distribution of tissue paper for sanitary purposes - to be held in São Paulo, October 4-6.

ABTCP 2010 will be drawing around 180 exhibitors and over 15,000 visitors, including pulp and paper manufacturers from all over the world, as well as manufacturing and packaging firms, in an environment conducive to new partnerships and access to the latest technology for the sector, as well as opportunities to exchange knowledge.

Read 8652 times