Capital Effectiveness - The Forest Products Industry, 1998 Engineering Conference Proceedings

In the U.S., industry financial analysts suggest pulp and paper as an industry has been criticized for not yielding an adequate return to its shareholders on the capital invested over the past decade. As a result, this has put the industry under extreme pressure.

The pulp and paper industry can be characterized as:

· Capital intense
· Fragmented
· Large scale
· Commodity oriented
· Technically advanced, but with technologies available globally
· An industry under price/margin pressure

Two key ways by which the U.S. industry can address these challenges are:

· Individual corporate competitive strategies with the application of best management practices, innovation and utilization of advanced practices and technologies.
· Pre-competitive strategies through focused research and development, along with the joint advancement of critical technologies.

AF&PA’s ‘Agenda 2020’ is one mechanism to help align the pre-competitive efforts of the industry to improve capital effectiveness over the upcoming decade.