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The impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on global tissue paper production

Author : wong

Update time : 2022-06-08 17:01:54

Russia is a country rich in forest resources. The forest area accounts for 1/5 of the world's forest area, of which 1/3 is primary forest, 64% is natural regeneration forest, and 2.4% is artificial forest. Its wood species are mostly coniferous trees such as larch, sylvestris, white pine, and Korean pine, and larch is the most exported.

The annual production capacity of Russian wood pulp is about 10 million tons, accounting for 4% of the world's total. The annual production capacity of paper and board is about 12 million tons. Of the paper production capacity, 3 million tons are printing paper, 850,000 tons are tissue paper（toilet tissue paper,facial tissue, kitchen paper, paper towel, paper napkins and more）, and 8.5 million tons are packaging paper. Russia's largest paper company, Ilim, has a total annual pulp and paper production capacity of 11.5 million tons, accounting for 52% of the country's total capacity. In recent years, with the development of the economy and the increasing demand for trade and exports to China, a large number of plans for capacity expansion and production have been announced. Accordingly, the country will increase 4 million tons of cardboard base paper, 300,000 tons of household paper, and 4.8 million tons of pulp.

Russia is one of the world's leading pulp exporters, but cotton pulp needs to import about 210,000 tons per year, which is imported from the United States, Sweden and other countries. In addition, 800,000-900,000 tons of coated paper are imported from Europe every year.

The annual production capacity of paper and cardboard in Ukraine is 1.2 million tons, of which 800,000 tons are cardboard base paper and 220,000 tons are household paper. Ukraine's paper consumption is dependent on imports, mainly from Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia, China and Sweden, which account for 64% of its total imports.
Russia's pulp export volume is about 2.1 million to 2.3 million tons per year, accounting for 4% to 5% of global trade volume. More than 60% of the pulp is exported to China, and some are exported to South Korea and Europe. The annual export volume of paper and cardboard is 1.29 million tons.

Hewbonn paper is a tissue paper manufacturer & exporter, supplying tissue paper to the global market for a long time.
(toilet paper, facial tissue, kitchen paper, paper towel, paper napkins manufacturer)

Trade in chemicals and other paper-making materials has also been restricted after Europe imposed economic sanctions on Russia following the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Some Russian paper companies were forced to suspend production due to shortage of auxiliary materials. While Europe relies on Russian imports of wood chips and pulp, there is a shortage of newsprint and printing paper in some regions.

In addition, the restricted paper production in Russia has also had a significant impact on the Chinese market. With the ban on imported waste paper in 2021, China began to import pulp to make up for the shortage of papermaking raw materials. In 2021, China's pulp imports will be 23.7 million tons, of which 1.3 million tons (about 6%) will be imported from Russia. According to the statistics, among the 1.09 million tons of UKP imported each year, 200,000 tons (about 18%) come from Russia, which is the second largest supplier to the Chinese market after Chile. Of the 8.4 million tons of BSK that China imports each year, 1 million tons (about 12%) come from Russia.

China's wood chips are highly dependent on imports, and 40% to 80% of consumption depends on imports. But imports from Russia are limited, with 57% from Vietnam, 18% from Australia, 6% from Chile and 4% from Brazil. Russia exports 800,000 tons of softwood chips annually. Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia has banned the export of softwood chips to Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia. The supply of softwood chips in these regions has been affected. In addition, before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia had announced restrictions on softwood log exports from 2023. China imports 6.9 million cubic meters of softwood logs from Russia every year, accounting for 11% of the total imports. In addition, Finland borders Russia and also relies on Russia for log imports, with 77% of imports coming from Russia.

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