Geographical Distribution of the European Paper Industry

European paper production in 1996 totalled about 75 million tonnes, which corresponds to approximately a quarter of the world’ s total paper and board production. The term paper covers paper and paperboard of all grammages. The main paper producers are Germany (20.2%), Finland (14.2%), Sweden (12.4%), France (11.7%), Italy (9.6%) and UK (8.5%). In 1996 total exports amount to 41 million tonnes, imports come to 34 million tonnes (the figures of this section are mainly derived from [CEPI, Annual Statistics 1996]).

From the whole paper production about 40% was packaging; 13% was newsprint; 38% was other graphic papers (writing / printing) and 6% tissue. About half of the writing and printing production was coated (12.8 Mt/a).

The main producers of graphic papers are Germany and Finland followed by Sweden, France, Italy and U.K. Newsprint production has traditionally concentrated in Finland and Sweden. The increased use of recycled fibres by the Central European producers has caused the location of industry to shift to the large consumer centres, such as Germany. Due to the nature of newsprint as a commodity paper grade, production units are large per machine capacity, amounting to an average of 145000 t/a in total Western Europe.

Wood-containing printing and writing papers are mainly produced in Finland and Germany, which together account for approximately a 60% share of total production. Wood-containing papers are supplied by large-scale integrated mills.

In the manufacturing of woodfree printing and writing papers Germany, France, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Austria play the leading role with remarkable amount of paper produced in most other European countries. The majority of the market consists of a small number of concentrated producers.

Major producers of liner and fluting are Germany and France. They represent approximately 35% of total production. Recycled-fibre-based production, concentrating in Central Europe has grown more rapidly than virgin fibre based production.

For manufacturing of cartonboards both recovered and virgin fibres are used as raw material.

Recycled fibre-based grades are dominantly supplied by the region of Central Europe, whereas the virgin fibre based folding boxboard and liquid packaging board production is concentrated in the Nordic countries. Production capacity consists of rather small mills and machines, the average machine capacity amounting to 33000 t/a, except for the mills located in Finland and Sweden, with an average machine capacity of 110000 t/a.

Tissue production is concentrated in four countries with France, Germany, Italy and the UK producing over 70% of Europe’s tissue. Although there are over 60 companies in total producing tissue, three multinationals dominate; two American and one Swedish, with over 60% between them. There are still many small companies producing 10000 t/a or less, which are private or family owned businesses. The average machine size is very small, approximately 19000 t/a.

Figure 1.4 and Figure 1.5 show how paper manufacturing is more widely spread across Europe than the pulp mills.

The Figure 1.4 distinguishes graphic papers (newsprint, uncoated mechanical, uncoated woodfree, coated papers), sanitary and household papers (tissue and other hygienic papers) and packaging papers (case materials, folding boxboard, wrapping up to 150 g/m² and other papers mainly for packaging).

Size structure of industry across Europe for Paper Mills (1996)

0 50 100 150 200 250

Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Netherlands Norw ay Portugal Spain Sw eden United Kingdom

Number of Mills in each size category

<10.000 t/a;total 311 mills 10.000 to 25.000 t/a; total: 196 mills 25.000 to 50.000 t/a; total: 178 mills 50.000 to 100.000 t/a; total 149 mills 100.000 to 250.000 t/a; total 135 mills

>250.000 t/a; 72 mills

Total number of paper mills: 1064

Figure 1.4: An overview of the industry distribution across Europe for paper production

No data was available on the size structure for the Greek paper mills [CEPI 1997, Annual Statistics 1996]

Total paper production by main grades across Europe (1996)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Netherlands Norw ay Portugal Spain Sw eden United Kingdom

Million tonnes per year

Packaging papers Sanitary and household Graphic papers

Figure 1.5: An overview of the mill size distribution across Europe for paper production [CEPI 1997, Annual Statistics 1996]

The total amount of paper mills in Western Europe accounts for 1064 most of them located in Italy, Germany, France and Spain representing together 679 mills. Only 66 very large mills are found in the category of >250000 tonnes per year but 342 mills in the small category of less than 10000 tonnes per year. Compared to pulp production a relatively high number of small and medium-sized paper manufacturing facilities are in operation.

About 30% of the paper mills are integrated with pulp production. Mechanical paper grades, like newsprint, SC and LWC, are usually integrated with mechanical pulp and often buy only small amounts of chemical pulp. Especially for recovered paper manufacturing the level of integration is high; nearly all recovered paper mills include recovered paper processing, some of them adding purchased pulp. However, fine paper production in Central Europe is mainly based on purchased pulp i.e. has a high share of non-integrated industry, whereas in Nordic countries paper mills have in many cases been built adjacent to a pulp mill.

Historically, pulp and paper mills were, and mostly still are located close to some body of water as the availability of water plays a major role in the production process. Rivers were used to generate the power needed for the pulping, to supply process water and as recipient for discharges from the mills. The waterways were used for the transportation of both raw materials and products. As consumption of paper and board increased, the size of the mills started to grow and frequently mills were developed close to the raw material source. The global marketing of pulp and the increased use of recycled fibre now tends to favour locating new paper mills close to the market.