RISI pulp and paper ranks published

RISI, an information provider for the forest products industry, has released the latest edition of the Pulp & Paper International (PPI) Top 100. The PPI Top 100 is an annual list of the biggest pulp and paper producers in the world. International Paper 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 number three 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 number 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 number 88 all the way to number 70), Sun Paper, Hokuetsu, Rengo, Yuen Foong Yu, Lee & Man and Shandong Chenming. At number 35, Shandong Chenming is still the largest Chinese company listed. Two Indian-based companies, BILT and ITC, also made a move upwards from number 98 to 95 and number 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 206.6 million tons from 219.7 million tons in 2008. This marked the second consecutive year of decline. Market pulp production did show a small jump up, to 42.3 million tons from 41.1 million tons.