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COLUMNS

Heads-Up
Looking for Green Shoots of Recovery. The industry is being re-shaped in ways that we have never seen before. When the treatment for a serious condition is radical, it's hard to see how the patient can survive. But the signs are there, although we have to work hard to identify them through the thickets of bad news, losses, closures and invisible profits.

Market Grade
UNCOATED GROUNDWOOD. North American uncoated groundwood paper demand closely tracks advertising expenditures on key media such as free standing newspaper inserts. Ad revenues have shrunk significantly and in turn so has demand. While grades such as SC papers have benefited some from grade shifts the overall market is in bad shape and some of the loss in demand may never recover.

DEPARTMENTS

Editor's Note
Reads Like Paper. Amazon, the maker of the electronic reader Kindle, is working hard to provide consumers with a paper-like reading experience without the paper.

Of Interest
Coated Papermakers, Union, File Antidumping Petition. The U.S. coated paper industry charges China and Indonesia with subsidization and dumping.

FEATURES

Changes and Opportunities
European consumers are switching from brand name tissue products to private label products in increasing numbers. More effective differentiation is the only way brand name products will be able to retain their position on the shelves.

Modifying the Quality of Fiber with Enzymes
Enzyme-treated fibers can be refined more easily, allowing the papermaker to change paper strength characteristics while maintaining the applied refining energy or to keep the paper strength specifications constant and reduce the applied refining energy.

Total Stock Chest Mixing
Total chest mixing can be accomplished by utilizing a correctly sized top-entry agitator combined with modified impeller technology to create multiple areas of zonal mixing. This new approach not only mitigates the previously high costs of full-chest mixing, it also delivers energy savings of 50% compared to standard side-entry mixers.