Russian Pulp&Paper: Pulp and Paper Industry’s Progress Inadequate Considering its Importance...

The ewperience of countries with sufficient forestry resources has proved that the pulp and paper industry is the deciding factor for the effective functioning of the forestry complex as a whole. The need to have a progressively developing pulp and paper industry is especially important for Russia, a country with roughly 20 percent of the world’s forestry resources.

Yet the dynamics of the sector’s development have been inadequate over the past 40 years. From 1961 to 1970, cardboard production increased 2.1 times; from 1971 to 1980 it grew 30 percent; but from 1981 to 1990 it increased just 19 percent.

During the transitional period that started in 1990, production volumes of pulp and paper products dropped significantly, which, considering rather high export volumes, led to a sharp decrease in paper and cardboard consumption in Russia.

Currently, annual consumption per capita, a commonly accepted indicator of paper and cardboard, is 21.4 kilograms in Russia, while it is 50 kilograms in the United States and 115 kilograms in Europe.

At the same time, the wood and timber industry has accumulated many unresolved problems and, in some cases, significant imbalances.

The inadequate level of the pulp and paper industry’s development in the central region deserves special attention. Production of fiber-pulp products is practically nonexistent there, while the paper produced in the region accounts for 3.5 percent and the cardboard for 14.5 percent of the country’s total.

At the same time, the region consumes the largest quantity of mass-produced, as well as specialized, paper products. As a result, the region has to import large volumes of pulp and paper products.

In 1999, the central region imported 100 percent of paper and 61 percent of cardboard products.

The current situation has led to the development of a special program entitled "The Program of Restructuring of the Wood and Timber Complex in Russia to 2005." The program, proposed in 1998 and approved by the government, is aiming to create outpacing growth in chemical processing of raw wood.

The pulp and paper industry is planning a number of strategic measures aimed at preserving forestry resources, increasing the consumption of deciduous pulp, boosting the quality and competitiveness of the products, decreasing the use of financial and energy resources and increasing ecological safety.

Considering that for the domestic market for pulp and paper to outpace growth in other markets remains one of the main strategic directions for Russia’s wood and timber complex in the long term, and also taking into account that paper and pulp production is rather capital intensive, it has been deemed necessary to build new production facilities. Some have already been planned, attracting the attention of regional governments and a number of investors.

This is pertinent for the medium-sized paper and pulp production facilities in the central region.

Thanks to the interest from several district administrations in the central region – those that have sufficient wood and timber resources and want to use them more efficiently – several offers to build new pulp and paper facilities have been put on the table.

Local administrations have expressed their support for the following projects:

1. Moscow Oblast:

a) A factory specializing in sanitary and hygienic products, including alkaline-peroxide wood-pulp production from deciduous pulp (100,000 tons), the basis for sanitary and production products (60,000 tons for toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, etc.) as well as retail sanitary products (54,600 tons) and retail alkaline-peroxide wood-pulp (48,800 tons).

b) A cardboard factory, which includes alkaline-peroxide wood-pulp production from deciduous pulp (100,000 tons) and box cardboard, both coated and uncoated (with a partial use of scrap paper). Commercial products include box cardboard (161,000 tons) and cardboard boxes with full-color prints (15,000 tons).

2. Tver Oblast:

a) A pulp-cardboard plant, including alkaline-peroxide wood-pulp production from deciduous pulp (250,000 tons), sulfate unbleached deciduous pulp (80,000 tons), sulfate unbleached coniferous pulp (80,000 tons), cardboard for flat layers of corrugated cardboard and paper (400,000 tons). Commercial products include cardboard for flat layers of corrugated cardboard and paper (315,000 tons) and corrugated cardboard boxes (160 million sq. meters.)

3. Kostroma Oblast:

a) A pulp and paper mill, including sulfate bleached coniferous pulp (92,100 tons gross), sulfate unbleached deciduous pulp (169,900 tons gross), coated and uncoated office paper (200,000 tons). Commercial products include office paper (200,000 tons) and sulfate bleached deciduous pulp (53,000 tons).

Preliminary work proved that the regions may themselves consume the products slated for production in these regions, and help solve ecological problems, as well as supply raw materials and energy resources.

(Yelena Demeshkan, a researcher at the department of industry development and enterprise placement, contributed to this article.)
(The author is head of the pulp and paper group at the Research and Development Institute of Forestry’s department of industry development and enterprise placement.)
Russia Journal