TABLE 91.-Wood pulp: United States production, imports, and apparent consumption of unbleached and bleached sulphate pulp-Continued

Values are not strictly comparable for all years. In even numbered years questionnaire carried the following note: "When pulp is consumed at mill and not sold please state production costs or price charged to paper plants." In odd numbered years the questionnaire called for the estimated market value f. o. b. mill.

2 No exports.

Unbleached and bleached sulphate combined: Production not shown by census separately to avoid disclosing operations of individual mills.

Preliminary.

Not available.

Sources: Production-U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census for the years prior to 1936; statistics for 1936 as reported by United States Pulp Producers Association; imports, Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States, and Monthly Summary of Foreign Commerce of the United States, U. S. Department of Commerce.

DOMESTIC PRODUCTION AND ITS DISPOSITION

Production by grades and regions.

Since nearly all of the domestic sulphate pulp is converted into further advanced products by the same concerns that produce it, standards as to grades are those necessary to maintain the quality of the converted products, rather than to meet market requirements of pulp purchasers. As stated previously, unbleached sulphate is usually graded as No. 1 kraft or No. 2 kraft, and distinction also is made between pulp produced in the South, or southern kraft, and that produced in other regions.

In 1929 about 55 percent, and from 1932 to 1935 about 74 percent, of the domestic output of unbleached sulphate was of southern manufacture. About one-fifth of this in 1929 and 1932 and one-sixth in other years was classified in reports to the Commission as No. 1 kraft, and the remainder was classed chiefly as No. 2 kraft, a part being designated merely as southern kraft. Unbleached sulphate produced in other regions was reported chiefly as No. 1 kraft, the proportion fluctuating between three-fourths and four-fifths of the total. In other words, from 1933 to 1935 about 68 percent of the total domestic unbleached sulphate consisted of No. 2 kraft, almost all of which was of southern origin. Of the proportion reported as No. 1 kraft, representing about 32 percent of the total domestic production of unbleached sulphate, about 40 percent was produced in the South and 60 percent in other regions.

Northeastern region.-Production of sulphate in the Northeastern region is very small, only one sulphate mill in that region having operated in recent years.

Lake and Central region.-In the Lake and Central region, sulphate production declined after 1929 but showed some recovery in 1935.

The lessened total output resulted from a much smaller production of No. 1 kraft, because the manufacture of No. 2 kraft and bleached sulphate has actually increased in this region.

Southern region. In 1929 about 60 percent of the total output in the United States was manufactued in the South; from 1933 to 1935 nearly 75 percent of the total was produced there. New mills and mills under construction or projected will greatly increase capacity and presumably will result in a considerably increased output in 1937 and later. More than half of the relatively small domestic production of bleached sulphate is also produced in the South, but a smaller proportion of the total sulphate production of the Southern than of the Lake and Central region is bleached.

Pacific coast region. In the Pacific coast region, production decreased in 1931 and 1932, but since then output has increased. Most of the sulphate produced on the Pacific coast is No. 1 kraft, about 80 percent of the total output consisting of that grade in 1934 and 1935. The output of bleached sulphate in that region up to 1937 was very small.

Table 92 shows production by regions for the years 1929 to 1935. Regional data for unbleached and bleached sulphate are combined so as not to reveal individual operations.

TABLE 92.-Wood pulp: Domestic production of sulphate, by regions

[Quantities in thousands of tons of 2,000 pounds]

1 Northeastern combined with Lake and Central region so as not to reveal individual operations.
2 Not shown separately by regions so as to prevent revealing individual operations.
3 Not available.

Source: Data obtained by the U. S. Tariff Commission in this investigation. See note 5, p. 68, respecting adjustment of data.

Disposition and distribution of domestic sulphate.

Not only is domestic sulphate almost wholly consumed in the region in which produced, but up to the present nearly all has been consumed in integrated pulp-paper operations, even transfers of pulp between affiliated mills having been very small. In 1935 only about 45,000 tons of domestic sulphate, or about 3 percent of production, was shipped from the producing mills in the form of pulp; the remainder was converted into paper or board in integrated or adjoining converting plants. The pulp which was shipped consisted of 1,500 tons of bleached and 13,500 tons of unbleached sulphate sold in open market, and 30,000 tons shipped to paper or board mills affiliated with the producing pulp mills. Most of the sulphate pulp shipped by domestic mills moved relatively short distances, and only about 7,000 tons was

shipped out of the region in which the pulp was produced. The interregional movements of domestic sulphate consisted almost wholly of shipments from mills in the South to paper or board plants in the Lake and Central region, and were in part intracompany transfers but chiefly of pulp sold.41

Recent developments, however, indicate an increased interregional movement of domestic sulphate in 1937 and future years. On the Pacific coast, a sulphate mill which had been idle resumed operations in 1936 with the intention of bleaching its entire output and of shipping to an affiliated mill in the Northeastern region as well as of selling to nonaffiliated mills in that and other regions and abroad. In the South two new sulphate mills began making shipments in 1937 to affiliated paper mills in other regions. One is an integrated plant utilizing part of its pulp in the manufacture of kraft paper and bags and shipping part of the pulp to an affiliated mill in the Northeast. The other is a pulp mill without a connecting paper plant and producing bleached sulphate primarily for transfer to an affiliated mill in the Lake and Central region. Other new sulphate mills now under construction or projected for the South are planned as integrated pulp-paper plants. However, as the owning concerns have other paper and board mills in the North, part of the output may be shipped in pulp form to their northern affiliates.

The increased domestic output of sulphate has in part been consumed in paper and board products supplying increased demands in old and established fields, and in part in wrappings, shipping containers, towels, bags, and other products for use in newly developed fields which previously were not markets for such paper and board products. New sulphate mills now under construction or projected, or which started operating in 1936, will add about 1,200,000 tons to the domestic sulphate capacity in the next 2 years. This is equal to nearly 50 percent of the total domestic consumption of sulphate pulp in 1936 and is considerably in excess of sulphate imports. Between 1933 and 1936 there was an increase of more than 700,000 tons in domestic consumption of this kind of pulp. Whether the further increase in domestic output will be absorbed as in the past, or whether it will result in diminished imports or in marked replacement of sulphite and other paper stock, such as old paper, by sulphate, is not clear at this time.

Imports by countries of origin.

IMPORTS

Tables 93 and 94 show imports of unbleached and bleached sulphate by countries of origin.

Unbleached sulphate.-Unbleached sulphate is second only to unbleached sulphite in volume of imports, exceeding bleached sulphite. Sweden is the principal source of unbleached sulphate. Since 1926 more than half of the total, and since 1931 more than 70 percent of the total, has been imported from Sweden. Finland has been the second most important source since 1931 when it supplanted Canada. Imports of unbleached sulphate from Canada declined sharply after 1929; since 1932 there has been some slight recovery, but the quantities

41 Data obtained by the U. S. Tariff Commission in this investigation. A substantially larger quantity of sulphate "produced for sale" in 1931 and 1933 was reported by the census. The figures for sales compiled by the Tariff Commission cover actual sales in open markets to converters entirely independent of and not connected with the producing mills.

10243-38--15

of such pulp imported from Canada in recent years are only about one-third as large as in the years prior to 1930.

Bleached sulphate.-Imports of bleached sulphate are relatively small, but have increased sharply in the past few years. Canada is the principal source, followed by Sweden. Small quantities are reported from Finland and Norway. Canada has supplied more than 50 percent of the total in all years since 1930. However, imports from Sweden, the second source of supply, have been gaining relatively in the past few years.

TABLE 93.-Wood pulp: General imports of unbleached sulphate from principal

Source: Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States for years prior to 1936; statistics for 1936 compiled by the U. S. Tariff Commission from unpublished import data furnished by the Department of Commerce.

TABLE 94.—Wood pulp: General imports of bleached sulphate from principal sources

Source: Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States for years prior to 1936; statistics for 1936 compiled by the U. S. Tariff Commission from unpublished import data furnished by the Department of Commerce.

Grades of sulphate imported.

An analysis by the Commission of practically all imports from Europe classified as unbleached sulphate during the period from 1932 to 1935 showed that 97 percent or more of the total were graded as No. 1 kraft. The remainder consisted of No. 2 kraft and semibleached sulphate, with very small quantities designated as No. 3 kraft. Small quantities of sulphate screenings were also imported.

The relatively small quantity of unbleached sulphate imported from Canada consists chiefly of No. 1 kraft.

Bleached sulphate from Canada includes some highly refined specialquality pulp, but the bulk of it consists of regular bleached sulphate. The bleached sulphate imported from Europe, small in volume, varies somewhat in quality, but was not graded other than by brand designation, except for small quantities designated as No. 2 bleached.