Business News

RISI Publishes the Latest Ranking of Global Pulp and Paper Companies in the PPI Top 100

Wednesday 06. October 2010 - RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry, today unveiled the latest edition of the Pulp & Paper International (PPI) Top 100. Published in the September issue of PPI magazine and on the RISI website, the PPI Top 100 is an annual list of the biggest pulp and paper producers in the world. Once again, International Paper (IP) sits at the top of the pile but there was a lot of movement elsewhere in the rankings.

Oji Paper moved up three positions but it was enough to crack the top five as the company came in at No. 3 behind IP and Procter & Gamble. Rounding out the top five were SCA and Stora Enso. Fibria made its debut in the top third of the table, at No. 28, and others making a first appearance in the Top 100 were Hunan Tiger Forest & Paper at 80, Kapstone at 91, Arctic Paper at 93 and Neenah Paper at 94.

As could be expected from how the worldwide pulp and paper industry has shaken out over the past few years, the real movers were the Asians. Making a significant climb up the ladder were Cheng Loong (from No. 88 all the way to No. 70), Sun Paper, Hokuetsu, Rengo, Yuen Foong Yu, Lee & Man and Shandong Chenming. At No. 35, Shandong Chenming is still the largest Chinese company listed. Two Indian-based companies, BILT and ITC, also made a move upwards from No. 98 to 95 and No. 99 to 90 respectively.

Overall, sales of pulp, paper, board and converted materials showed a significant drop in 2009 compared with 2008, from$313.8 billion to $282.6 billion. This is even below the 2007 total of $296.1 billion. Total reported paper and board production fell to 187.5 million tonnes from 199.3 million tonnes in 2008. This marked the second consecutive year of decline. Market pulp production did show a small jump up, to 38.4 million tonnes from 37.3 million tonnes.