Perfume packaging, milk cartons, dog food packaging, corrugated board and liner for plasterboard -paperboard is a highly-varied and growing product area in the global paper industry but a small area for Södra, with the exception of Södra Cell Folla.
Western Europe produced 40 million tonnes of paperboard in 2005, which was 40 per cent of the total paper production in this part of the world. Södra Cell, which is Europe’s largest supplier of market pulp, delivers only five per cent of its pulp production to this huge product area.
There are two reasons for this:
- paperboard consists largely of unbleached pulp and/or recycled fibre.
- the pulp used in paperboard production is almost all integrated or captive (in other words, produced at the same mill or by the same company as the end product).
“But at the same time, there are indications that some of our paperboard customers will be needing more market pulp in the future,” says Hågen Rismark, manager of the tissue and paperboard business area at Södra Cell International.
“This is because as their production increases they may not have enough of their own pulp,” he says.
Five per cent
Today less than 100,000 tonnes, or five per cent, of Södra Cell’s pulp production goes into paperboard products and the percentage is often combined in the figures for speciality products. Some paperboard products actually fit quite well into this area.
CTMP, which provides high bulk and thus stiffness, makes up the base of certain key paperboard products and for Södra Cell Folla, this makes paperboard an extremely important product area. Some 35 per cent of the mill’s annual CTMP production of 100,000 tonnes goes into paperboard, primarily folding boxboard (perfume packages and other high quality cartonboard) and liquid packaging board (milk cartons, etc).
“Frövi, which is now owned by Korsnäs, is Folla’s single biggest customer in the paperboard area,” says Hågen Rismark.
“They in turn are major suppliers to TetraPak, the liquid packaging board producer.”
High purity standards
Extremely high purity demands are made on liquid packaging board, as they are on cigarette paper. CTMP only contains extremely small quantities of extractive matter, which in large quantities can cause taste and odour problems.
Among Södra Cell Folla’s other paperboard customers is Stora Enso Skoghall. Over the past 10-12 years, Södra’s smallest mill has also made regular CTMP deliveries to paperboard mills in China.
“Four mills in China between them currently buy just over ten per cent of Folla’s CTMP for paperboard production,” says Hågen Rismark.
The better paperboard products have a liner of sulphate pulp and Södra Cell’s product combination is therefore an advantage for customers.
“We deliver substantial volumes of liner, mostly birch sulphate, to paperboard customers and also small volumes of long fibre to some Chinese mills,” explains Hågen Rismark.
“Volume-wise, these liner deliveries represent just over 60,000 of the total 100,000 tonnes we deliver to paperboard producers.”
Paperboard facts:
There is no clear dividing line between paperboard and normal paper. But there are two criteria that generally apply:
- The surface weight of paperboard is usually more than 150 g/m2.
- Most paperboard products are made up of different layers.
The major area of cartonboard and containerboard, jointly known as paperboard, can be divided into three main groups:
- cartonboard
- containerboard
- speciality board
Södra’s deliveries of pulp for folding boxboard and liquid packaging board fall within the cartonboard category.
Södra pulp is also used for wallpaper and in liner for plasterboard, products which both belong to the speciality board category.
Volume-wise, the biggest category is containerboard which often includes liner and fluting, together forming what we know as corrugated fibreboard. Essentially only unbleached pulp and/or recycled fibre are used in the containerboard area, so Södra does not supply this market.
- Total global production of paperboard in 2005: 198 million tonnes.
- Total global paper production in 2005: 368 million tonnes.
Business area and product groups:
Since spring 2007, Södra Cell’s sales have been organised into two business areas, each with two product groups:
- Hågen Rismark is manager of the tissue and paperboard business area, as well as being responsible for CTMP sales, which are mostly destined for these two product areas. Assisting him is Christer Fasth, as technical product manager for tissue and paperboard, and Robert Kolsing, who has special responsibility for assisting customers who use CTMP from Folla.
- Henrik Wettergren is manager of the printing paper and speciality products business area. Printing paper is a combination of the former fine paper and magazine paper product groups, which have gradually become more similar.
We have changed the term speciality paper to speciality products, because the end result is often something other than actual paper.
- Technical product manager for printing paper is Kilian Kleinhenz, while Jens Hallendorff has a similar role for speciality products.