Consumption of tissue, towel and hygiene products to show future growth

At the Niece Tissue conference, Esko Uutela has reported that the global consumption of tissue products will continue to grow by around 4% per year until 2011.  This is good news for paper chemicals suppliers with a good range of products to offer this industry segment (eg Ashland, Nalco), provided profitable pricing can be achieved.

There are regional differences with the 'old' economies such as Japan, North America and Western Europe showing low relative growth when compared to the growth areas of China, East Europe and the Middle East.

Some specific information reported by Uutela was:

• China will add around 4.3 million tons
• Western Europe 1.8 million tons
• Latin America 1.7 million tons
• Eastern Europe 1.2 million tons
• The 'At Home' market will grow faster than the 'Away from Home' segment
• There has not been further consolidation - the top 4 in 2009 produced 38% of the global tissue, whereas they produced 42% in 1999
• Kimberly-Clark remains No 1 and SCA has moved to No 2 following the deal with P&G

The details of Uutela's presentation and other topics covered in the recent conference can be obtained from Tissue World.