Global Fiber Supply-A Balancing Act, 1996 International Pulp Bleaching Conference Proceedings

Global fiber supply is in a critical period of transition. Timber harvest legislation has pushed the price of chips in the Pacific Northwest to record levels. Chips are shipped to this fiber short region from as far as South American and the Southern US ports. Japan has expanded its search for chips to the Southern US and all the major South American nations. North America is steadily increasing its recovery and use of recycled fiber, but still exports 15% of the recycled paper it recovers to foreign countries. Rapidly increasing domestic demand for recycled fibers has pushed prices to record levels in recent months. Nonwood fiber usage continues to grow in developing nations, but interest has spread to North America where up to 450 million tons of agricultural residues are potentially available annually. Per capita consumption of paper and board products is over 700 pounds per person per year in the US and steadily increasing globally. As developing nations increase their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and per capita consumption of paper and board products, there are serious concerns that there will soon be a global fiber supply shortage. However, the primary use of wood around the world is for fuel. Over 50% of harvested wood is used for domestic and industrial fuel. Sustainability no longer has a narrow definition of simply a flow of logs for production of wood and fiber products. The public is increasingly involved in the debate about what is being sustained, ranging from biodiversity and habitat to simply allowing forests to grow with no human intervention. The fiber supply balancing act looks much like a circus show combining a large interested audience, at least three rings of action at all times, many participants with specialized skills working together, and some degree of risk. Stay away from the lady with the crystal ball. She has a distorted picture of the future. Like raising the big top, it is going to take some real teamwork from the forest to the product to...