How many pulp and paper mills in canada

This the industry did with remarkable effectiveness. Whereas it had the capacity to produce roughly 4. Despite this supremacy, newsprint makers also faced certain challenges that only grew over time. For example, they faced increasing competition from producers in the Southern US and Scandinavia, as well as rising production costs. As a result, the industry intermittently suffered through difficult times, which entailed temporary mill closures and shutdowns and the steady erosion of its international predominance.

At the same time, production of other types of papers in Canada grew modestly. Producers of packaging papers, for example, augmented their operations largely through mergers and acquisitions, and a few dominant players emerged. This expansion was fueled by the barriers that existed to entering the newsprint industry, the interest in exploiting previously unused tree species and the drive by foreign interests to secure dependable and relatively inexpensive sources of raw pulp.

Most important, however, was the nearly obsessive push by several provincial governments to exploit their control over crown resources to foster economic development, specifically in the form of new pulp mills. In the late s, for instance, the Nova Scotia government convinced a leading Swedish pulp and paper maker, Stora Kopparberg now Stora Enso , to construct a major sulphite pulp mill in Port Hawkesbury by offering it access to the local supply of pulpwood.

These years also saw the pulp and paper industry establish major operations in the Prairies, principally in Saskatchewan and Alberta , and these projects were backed by both domestic and foreign interests. The Canadian pulp and paper industry enjoyed buoyant periods during these years, but its challenges continued to mount. These efforts produced a half-dozen new pulp mills, most of which made kraft pulp, and were erected by American, Japanese and Canadian interests.

It quickly gained significant political traction, and led to the enactment of increasingly stringent environmental laws at both the provincial and national levels.

For the industry, this meant much higher production costs but a much "greener" modus operandi. Other factors created huge hurdles for all Canadian pulp and paper producers to surmount. Its production costs also increased dramatically during this period because of rapidly rising prices for both energy and labour. Moreover, its competitors both old the US and Europe and new Asia and the developing world generally enjoyed much lower production costs and the added advantage of utilizing the latest technology.

For the newsprint sector, these changes and its inadvisable business strategy were particularly devastating. Moreover, the industry demonstrated a remarkable blindness to changing trends in paper consumption and an unshakeable faith that its salvation lay in creating ever-larger enterprises.

Abitibi Power and Paper was the best example of this line of thinking. It first acquired Price Brothers in the mids, and roughly two decades later merged with Stone-Consolidated to form Abitibi-Consolidated. Amidst the difficulties that beset the entire industry, however, there were some bright spots.

In the main it remained profitable, and it invested in new, vastly more efficient technology, such as thermomechanical and chemi-thermomechanical pulping processes the former uses heat and friction and the latter chemicals, heat and friction to extract the fibres. The first few years of the millennium were prosperous for the Canadian industry; however, a host of factors combined to deal the industry, and in particular the newsprint sector, a blow that left it practically dead.

Moreover, pulp production in the developing world, particularly South America, exploded. Then, in the Canadian dollar shot above its US counterpart and the American housing market crashed, while the Canada-US softwood lumber dispute intensified to the point where it bankrupted many sawmills which had been the main suppliers of wood chips to nearby pulp and paper producers. Not even one decade into the new millennium, pulp and paper mills were closing on what seemed like a weekly basis.

Unlike previous downturns, this one saw many of the shuttered enterprises being gutted of their equipment; they would never operate again.

As the dust settles on the havoc that rocked the industry during most of the 21st century so far, the picture is still unclear as to what lies ahead. Despite all its ailments, the industry remains a mainstay of the Canadian economy, particularly in remote and northern hinterland communities. Moreover, most of the firms that have survived the travails of the recent past have emerged from the ruins stronger than ever.

New ideas and innovations also hold out hope for the future. Their website offers background information about economic and sustainability issues related to their industry. Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. Suggest an Edit. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 12 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia.

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Article by Mark Kuhlberg. The pulp and paper industry consists of manufacturing enterprises that convert predominantly woody plant material into a wide variety of pulps, papers and paperboards.

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