SOY CHEMICALS FOR PAPER PROCESSING - Soy New Uses

In paperboard applications, specialty additive use is most prevalent in boxboard where a largepercentage involves bleached board for milk cartons, paper plates, cups and folding cartons.Tissues and nonwovens use dissolving and fluff pulps. Dissolving pulps are used in productionof regenerated cellulose fibers to produce specialty paper products and nonwoven sheets. Fluffpulps are used as a raw material in the absorbent core of personal care products such asdiapers, feminine hygiene products and air-laid absorbent toweling.Figure 2 shows the consumption of paper in North America in 2009 as reported by RISI. Thelargest segment was containerboard which includes boxes for packaging with consumption of26.4 million tons. The second highest in consumption is a segment that includes all uncoatedpaper from books, print and copy paper at 15.5 million tons. Tissue, one of the smallest inconsumption at 8 million tons, is considered one of the potential growth segments.Several studies have predicted that economic recovery will eventually boost manufacturing andcommercial printing activity and increase demand for production of paper and paperboard.However, domestic paper producers will continue to face strong competition from China, Indiaand South America, where low raw materials and labor costs lead to lower production costs.It is expected that anticipated gains in packaging markets for containerboard and boxboardcould be hampered by competition from plastic alternatives; however, it is possible that thetrend toward sustainable products (paper-based) could temper the gain of market share fromplastics.FIGURE 2NORTH AMERICAN PAPER CONSUMPTION8