pulp in the United States or buy it outright for resale to American consumers. Very nearly all of the imports of European pulp are handled by such concerns. Sales of Canadian pulp in part are made by American concerns similar to those handling European pulp, but large sales also are made by exporting agents located in Canada, and some shipments are made direct from mills to affiliates in the United States. Information on imports from Canada, therefore, was obtained from importing agencies in the United States, from two of the larger sales agencies in Canada, and from consuming mills in this country. Form of this report. While the trade in wood pulp and pulpwood is closely interrelated, pulpwood being the raw material from which wood pulp is made, there are distinctive problems connected with each of them. The report, therefore, is divided into two parts. Part I covers wood pulp, with necessary references to pulpwood, and part II treats of pulpwood in its distinctive aspects. Part I consists of a section dealing with the general features of the wood-pulp producing and consuming industries, and sections dealing with the production, trade, and consumption of the three principal kinds of wood pulp. Immediately following is a summary of the report. SUMMARY WOOD PULP-GENERAL Tariff treatment of wood pulp and of principal related imports. Imports of wood pulp itself, of pulpwood, the basic material of wood pulp, and of newsprint paper, one of its most important derivative products, have been virtually free of duty under all tariff acts since that of 1913. Pulpwood had previously been on the free list since 1897, and some kinds of wood pulp since 1909. Practically all kinds of paper except newsprint are and have long been dutiable at various rates. In the trade agreement with Sweden, effective August 5, 1935, certain kinds of wood pulp were bound on the free list for the duration of the agreement. In the agreement with Canada, effective January 1, 1936, the remaining kinds of wood pulp, together with pulpwood and newsprint paper, were bound free. Free entry of newsprint and of all kinds of wood pulp was also bound for the duration of the agreement with Finland, which became effective on November 2, 1936. Description and uses. Wood pulp consists of the fibrous material obtained from wood and is produced commercially by five basic processes, one mechanical, three chemical, and one a combination of mechanical and chemical processes. The resulting kinds of pulp are designated as mechanical, sulphite, sulphate, soda, and semichemical pulp. These are further differentiated into bleached and unbleached, and there are various grades or subclasses within each. Screenings or portions of the wood not completely reduced in the pulping processes are used for some purposes similar to those in which other wood pulp is employed and constitute a product of minor importance. Mechanical pulp, or ground wood, and sulphite pulp are produced principally from spruce, balsam fir, Western hemlock, and white fir. Up to the present, the mechanical and sulphite processes have not been used extensively in the reduction of Southern pine or of other woods which are largely used in the production of sulphate, soda, and semichemical pulp. Soda pulp is produced largely from broad-leafed species, especially poplar, beech, birch, and maple. Mechanical pulp is cheaper to produce than other varieties, partly because of the greater yield of pulp per cord of wood and partly because the converting process is less expensive. When made from light-colored woods, as practically all mechanical pulp is, it is itself fairly light in color even in unbleached condition. Most mechanical pulp is used unbleached mixed with other pulp, usually unbleached sulphite, in the cheaper forms of printing paper such as newsprint, in hanging, building, and lower grade tissue paper, and in board. Sulphite pulp is used, alone or mixed with other fibrous material such as ground wood, repulped waste paper, and rag pulp, in many kinds of paper and board. Like ground wood, sulphite pulp is light in color even before bleaching and is used in large quantities unbleached in cheap printing papers as well as in certain kinds of wrapping and tissue papers. However, the proportion of sulphite subjected to bleaching is much higher than of mechanical or sulphate pulp. Bleached sulphite is used in high-grade printing, writing, white wrapping, and many other varieties of higher grade paper. Highly purified grades of bleached sulphite are used in the production of rayon and various cellulose compounds. Sulphate, or kraft pulp, is dark brown in color in its unbleached state and paper made from it has unusual strength. Most sulphate pulp is used unbleached in the production of kraft wrapping paper, bags, container board, and similar products. For some types of board, sulphate pulp is mixed with repulped waste paper or other fibrous stock, but for wrapping and bag paper it is generally used alone. The utilization of bleached sulphate has rapidly expanded in recent years, but still only a small part of the total is bleached. Such pulp is used in bags, bond paper, papeteries, and various kinds of specialty paper. Soda pulp, a relatively minor kind, is practically all bleached and is used mixed with other pulp, principally bleached sulphite, in certain high grades of printing paper. Semichemical pulp is produced only in small quantities and all of the domestic output is used in the production of corrugating board. Slushed, lapped, and dried wood pulp.-Wood pulp is transferred from pulp-producing to pulp-converting equipment in one or another of three conditions-slush, wet laps, or dried pulp. In integrated pulp and paper mills the slush is usually pumped directly to the papermaking machines from the screening and washing equipment of the pulp departments. Pulp is shipped, mainly for limited distances only, in wet laps-partially dried sheets, of which usually one-half to two-thirds in weight is represented by water. For long-distance transportation the pulp is usually more completely dried, approaching the so-called air-dry condition, that is, 90 percent absolutely dry fiber and 10 percent moisture. Quantities and prices of pulp are usually expressed in terms of air-dry fiber content. United States production, imports, and exports. The United States production of wood pulp is larger than that of any other country, amounting to more than one-fifth of the world total. In spite of this large production, the bulk of which is consumed within the country, imports have in recent years constituted about 30 percent of the total wood pulp used in the United States. This country takes about one-third of the total wood pulp entering international trade. The bulk of the United States production consists of sulphite, sulphate, and ground wood. The imports are almost entirely of these kinds of pulp. Ground wood constitutes a much smaller proportion of imports than of domestic production. The domestic output of soda and semichemical pulp, especially the latter, is much smaller than that of the other kinds; there are small imports and exports of soda pulp but none of semichemical pulp. Exports of wood pulp, chiefly from the Pacific coast mills, have expanded greatly in recent years but are still small in relation to domestic production or imports; in 1935 and 1936 exports amounted to only between 3 and 4 percent of production. Most of the exports are of sulphite pulp, both rayon and other grades. Japan, taking the bulk of the exports from the West coast, has become by far the most important export market. The following table compares domestic production, imports, and exports of each of the main kinds of wood pulp in 1935, the latest year for which the value figures on domestic production are available. Except for an increase in the relative importance of the small imports and exports of soda pulp, the quantity figures for 1936 show no great change in ratios as compared with 1935. The approximate quantities of the domestic output which were not converted into paper or board by the producing concerns but were sold as pulp are also shown. Imports of pulp compete more directly with that sold as pulp by domestic mills than with that used by the producing concerns in their own paper production, a feature of the situation which is given further consideration in later sections. Wood pulp: United States production, imports, and exports in total and by main kinds of wood pulp, by quantity and value in 1935 [Quantities in thousands of tons of 2,000 pounds; values in thousands of dollars] 1 All imports and exports shown in this column were of soda pulp, and in the neighborhood of 4% of the figures for production and sales by quantity and larger proportions by value were of soda pulp. 2 The figures for quantities sold are based upon information supplied to the Tariff Commission by pulp mills producing very large proportions of the domestic production of each kind of pulp. The Census of Manufactures also reports production for sale of the main kinds of wood pulp but such census data for 1935 are not available at this time. In other years for which both census figures and figures compiled by the Commission are available, the former indicate larger domestic production for sale, especially of sulphate and ground wood, than the latter. The discrepancies probably arise from the fact that some pulp transferred by the pulp mills to affiliated paper or board mills has been reported to the census as produced for sale, while in the Commission's tabulations only shipments of pulp to mills entirely independent of the producing mills have been classified as sales. The figures for sales compiled by the Commission correspond closely with those reported by the United States Pulp Producers Association. Though there was a considerable decline from 1929 to 1932, the trend of domestic production of all types of wood pulp combined over a long period has been markedly upward. In 1935 the output exceeded that in any preceding year, and there was a further substantial increase in 1936. The production of sulphate has shown by far the greatest increase; in 1936 it was almost twice as large as in 1929 and over three times the average for the 5-year period from 1924 to 1928. In volume of output sulphate now ranks second only to sulphite, of which the domestic production first surpassed that of ground wood in 1932. The trend of sulphite production in the post-war period has been moderately upward. In contrast with sulphite and sulphate pulp production, the output of ground wood was decreasing even before the depression. This trend reflects the decline in domestic production of newsprint paper in which a large part of the ground wood is employed. In spite of some recovery the production of ground wood in 1936 was substantially lower than in 1929. Production of soda pulp shows no very well defined general trend in recent years, though it declined severely after 1929, and in 1935 and 1936 remained considerably below the level of 1929. The following table shows the production of the main kinds of wood pulp in the period 1919-36. United States production of wood pulp [Quantities in thousands of tons of 2,000 pounds; values in thousands of dollars] • Includes semichemical pulp, production of which was not reported separately in 1935. In the post-war period, imports of wood pulp of all kinds combined have increased relatively more than domestic production, but the disparity has been slight during the last 10 years. In the case of sulphite pulp, imports, which accounted for somewhat more than a quarter of consumption in the 1919-23 period, reached about 40 percent in the period 1924-28, and amounted to from 40 to 48 percent in all years after 1929. Domestic production of sulphate has expanded faster than imports, although imports of such pulp have increased more rapidly than those of sulphite. The increased production and imports of sulphate pulp are attributable to the greatly expanded demand for wrapping paper and for containers. Imports of soda pulp have shown a general upward trend in relation to domestic production but are still relatively small. The ratio of imports to production of ground wood has been fairly constant. . United States imports of wood pulp [Quantities in thousands of tons of 2,000 pounds; values in thousands of dollars] Until 1930 Canada was the most important source of imports of wood pulp, but more recently imports from Canada in the form of pulp have been smaller than formerly, while more Canadian wood pulp is now brought into this country in further advanced form as newsprint paper, of which Canada is by far the most important supplier. In the meantime, imports of wood pulp from European countries have expanded and Canada, although still the largest supplier of imports of bleached sulphite, ground wood, and bleached sulphate and the sole supplier of the small imports of soda pulp, ranks second to Sweden as a source of total imports of unconverted wood pulp. Sweden supplies principally unbleached sulphite and unbleached sulphate. Finland, Norway, Germany, and several other European countries also contribute substantially to United States imports of wood pulp. Some newsprint paper and other manufactures of wood pulp are imported from European countries as well as from Canada. Wood pulp and pulpwood requirements of the United States. The ratios of imports to domestic consumption of wood pulp given in the table on page 5 greatly understate the extent to which United States consumption of paper and other products made from wood pulp is supplied by materials of foreign origin. Part of the domestic pulp is made from imported wood and, as suggested above, substantial quantities of wood pulp are represented by imports in more advanced form, principally newsprint paper. The following table shows for 1936 the domestic production and imports of pulp, together with the pulp equivalent of imports of newsprint paper. Since imports of pulp manufactures other than newsprint represent only relatively small quantities of pulp, the totals of the three columns may be regarded as approximately indicating United States requirements of wood pulp (including the country's exports of pulp and products containing it). The table also shows the respective contributions of domestic and imported pulpwood, imported pulp, and imported newsprint to total United States requirements of pulpwood in 1936. 10243-38-2 |