Soft but strong

According to RISI tissue market consultant Esko Uutela, world tissue consumption exceeded 27mn tonnes in 2007 and continued on its long term growth pattern of nearly four per cent per year. The annual volume growth is now about one million tonnes and, as strong tissue demand growth in emerging markets, not in only China but also in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Near and Middle East, counterbalances slowing growth in the traditional main markets. By 2016, world tissue consumption is expected to exceed 38mn tonnes.

The global tissue business is one of the few continuously growing and dynamic paper industry branches, attracting new players to invest in new facilities, even in maturing markets such as North America.

Esko Uutela will present ‘The Global Tissue Market Outlook’, at Tissue World 2009 management and technical conference in Nice, France, during March 23-26.

The four-day event will cover a wide variety of critical topics on management, markets, energy, sustainability, technology, productivity, operations and competitiveness.

Jan Johansson, CEO and president of one of the world’s largest tissue companies, SCA, will launch the event with a keynote address. His theme will be ‘Managing Challenges on All Fronts - Markets, Energy, Sustainability, Economics, Environment’.

Other speakers and topics in the management session on Day 1 are to include: Roberto Berardi, chairman, European Tissue Symposium, Belgium, on ‘What Tissue Producers are Doing to Improve Awareness of the Big Advantages of Tissue Solutions’; ‘Sustainability in the Tissue Business’, by a speaker to be named, from Kimberly Clark; ‘Carbon Labelling and Application to Tissue Products’, from Roland McKinney, of Fibre Research Consultants, UK; and Roine Morin, environmental manager, SodraCell, Sweden, on ‘The Role of Healthy Forest in the Global CO₂ Balance’.

Six in-depth technical sessions will take place on Days 2, 3 and 4, covering many of the latest advances in tissue making technology. The session headings are: Paper Making Developments; Converting, Wrapping, Packaging and Logistics; Energy Reduction and Savings; Softness, Strength and Surface Treatment; Fibres, Water and Raw Materials; and Process Control, Testing and Maintenance.

Converting

The Converting session, on the morning of the second day, will include: ‘Inks for Tissue - Sustainable and Compostable Solutions’, by Erik Segers, of SunChemical Europe; ‘Maintaining the Best Quality Products With High Productivity’, Trefor Hughes, PCMC; ‘Change Your Way of Looking at the Converting Line’, Manrico Giusfredi, Fabio Perini; ‘Innovative Converting Technologies Bring New Life to Your Tissue’, Ian Padley, Hercules; and ‘Efficiency and Customisation in Napkin Production’, Alberto Redaelli, Omet.

A total of about 40 speeches will be included, with the aim of giving delegates a complete picture of advances in all areas of the tissue making, converting and packaging processes.

The accompanying exhibition is expected to feature up to 180 companies, including leading suppliers of equipment, machinery, supplies and systems for the tissue business. Among the exhibitors this year will be ABK Machinery, Absolute Engineering, Applied Laser Engineering, BTG Eclepens, CMG, DCM Usimeca, Henkel, IKS Klingelnberg, Mahlo, OCME, Omet, PCMC, Fabio Perini/ Körber PaperLink, PMT Italia, Toscotec, Tresu and Wetzel.

Covering every aspect of the industry, the Tissue World event promises to offer something to everyone involved in the tissue business, from machine operators to executive management personnel. The organiser states that attendance will save tissue makers time and effort by enabling them to see all the key suppliers in one place at one time.

The conference normally attracts about 300-400 delegates, whilst the exhibition visitors are said to total around 2,400.