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.

EU asks BASF to offload some business to comply with competition concerns - a good deal for BASF

The European Comission has concluded its look at the acquisition of Ciba by BASF and ruled that there are concerns in a number of market segments:

• DMA3 (dimethylaminoethyl acrylate - a chemical intermediate)
• Synthetic dry strength resins (used in the paper industry) 
• Bismuth vanadate (a pigment)
• Indanthrone blue (a pigment)
• Styrene acrylic (used as a glue for paper applications) - BASF will, of course remain a dominant producer of styre acrylate emulsion polymers
• HALS - hindered amine light stabilisers (used in plastics)
• UV filters for skin care products

To resolve the competition concerns, BASF and the EU have agreed that the following will be divested:

• BASF's DMA3 production assets in Ludwigshafen, Germany
• Ciba's entire EEA (Ethylene ethyl acrylate) synthetic dry strength agent business
• Ciba's global bismuth vanadate business
• Transfer Ciba's ' know-how of the finishing line', all supply contracts acustomer lists and inventories for the indanthrone blue
• Ciba's styrene acrylate business (and polyvinyl acetate, acrylic acid or acrylate) in the European Economic Area at Kaipianen, Finland
• HALS - Ciba's entire 'Chimassorb 119 FL' business, including the Chimassorb 119 FL production assets, releveant know-how and customer lists
• UV filters - BASF will conclude a UV Filter Licence Agreement, giving third party access to the technology behind Tinosorb S

Further information is available from the European Commission web site if one likes reading and can understand the EU mumbo jumbo.

This list of divestments is very light and a great deal for BASF who will continue to increase their dominance in a number of market segments - especially paper chemicals.  It raises the question as to whether this type of deal would have been allowed if the current poor economic environment had not existed.  In the last 6 months there have been a number of attempts to protect industries in Europe and past competition rules seem to have been relaxed.

White clouds gather over London - Specialist OBA conference to address key issues

This week sees a gathering of some European paper optical brightening agent specialists in London to discuss the current state of affairs.   In the midst of a continuing, very tough market environment and under threat from a number of key environmental issues, particularly the unsustainability of making paper whiter, whiter and whiter, dark clouds are gathering over this sector of the paper chemicals industry.  

It will therefore be inetresting to see if strategies can be developed for improving the sustainability and the environmental impact of using high levels of OBA to produce white papers. It is disappointing not to see any papers which specifically address the environmental impact, but perhaps the titles given by the speakers do not divulge everything which will be presented. It also would have strengthened the programme to have had contributions from the paper and board producers (users of OBAs).

The detailed programme for the conference, Optical Brighteners & Paper Whiteness, is available from the organiser Makowhiteness Project, and the following is a list of contributions:

OBA Market Conditions

Alec Tindal, Makowhiteness Ltd, UK (Consultant)

Factors Affecting OBA Performance

Martinez & Schoenenberger, IGCAR, Spain (Producer)

Lightfastness of OBAs

Olli Jokinen, Ciba SC, Finland (Producer)

Reaching the Highest Whites

David Puddiphatt, Clariant, Switzerland (Producer)

Paper Whiteness v’s Reproduction of Colour

Ole Norberg, Voxvil AB, Sweden (Whiteness Measurement)

White Paper Tinting (Shading Colours Technical)

Michael Kraemer, Kemira, Germany (Producer)

Optical Characterization of Paper as Basis for Printing & as Aesthetic Media

Claudio Puebla, Axiphos, Germany (Whiteness Measurement)

Shade Comparison in High White Papers

Alec Tindal, Makowhiteness Ltd, UK (Consultant)

Clariant, Kemira and Ciba (now BASF) are the leading producers of OBAs in Europe.

SPCI 2008 - Feedback is mixed

Unable to participate in SPCI 2008, I contacted a number of people who were in Stockholm for the event and in summary:

• 'Surprised how few companies were exhibiting'
• 'The participation and dynamism of the events in South America, Asia and India just show how Europe is changing and becoming less important'
  
• 'Great to meet old friends, but there were fewer this year'
• 'Very expensive - the event, the hotels, the taxis ....'
• 'The discussions on energy and how to save costs were of value ...........'
  

Times are becoming harder and it is not surprising to find that companies are finding it difficult to pay for exhibition stands and for their employees to attend. From the attendance figures I have seen, SPCI 2008 did well to attract the participation that they did!

Tissue World 2007

With the event drawing over 2,400 people from over 89 countries, this year's event was claimed by the organisers to be the best ever! (Tissue World 2007). What was there for the paper chemicals industry? A good opportunity to network with tissue producers - the event does attract a higher proportion of papermakers than many other industry events. The conference covered the following paper chemical topics:

Supporting Roles of Fabrics and Chemicals in the STT™ Process
Jeffrey B. Herman, Market Development Manager – Global TAD, Albany International Corp., USA & David M. Volpe, Sr. Applications Specialist, Hercules Inc., USA

Give me Strength!
Geoff Sheridan, Marketing Manager, BIM KEMI, United Kingdom

Energy Reduction through Wet End Addition - Fact or Fiction?
Chris McGregor, New Product Launch Manager, Hercules Ltd., United Kingdom
co-author:
Ian Padley, Global Market Segment Mgr., Tissue & Towel, Hercules Ltd., United Kingdom

More Tons, Less Energy, and Reduced Total Costs via Enzymatic Deinking
James Tausche, Co-Founder and CEO, Enzymatic Deinking Technologies, LLC (EDT), USA

Wet End Impacts on Creping: Effect of Retention/Drainage Aids
on Yankee Coating
Gary S. Furman, Research Associate, Nalco Company, USA
Co-authors:
Richard B. Phillips, Tissue Industry Technical Consultant, Nalco Company, USA
Sam L. Archer, Principal Consultant, Nalco Company, USA

There was a good overview of the European Tissue Industry by Esko Uutela of EU Consulting and much of this work is covered in a recent article (European Tissue Market).

If you were there, what were your thoughts? Click and comment .......