Isaura Daniel*
isaura.daniel@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Brazilian pulp and paper industries should close the year with a 16% increase in exports. This percentage is a forecast by the Brazilian Pulp and Paper Association (Bracelpa), which forecasts revenues of US$ 4.6 billion in sector foreign sales in 2007. Last year, Brazil had revenues of US$ 4 billion with exports of pulp and paper. According to the president at Bracelpa, Elizabeth de Carvalhaes, the performance is the result of heated global demand. "We exported more to Europe and much more to China," stated Elizabeth during a press conference. In terms of volume, exports should grow 4.5% to 8 million tonnes.
The Arab nations, according to the spokesperson for the foreign area at Bracelpa, Ludwig Moldan, still buy just a small share of sector exports. Brazil exports mainly paper to the Arabs, as the countries in the region do not have many paper plants and, therefore, according to Moldan, are not large consumers of pulp. In paper exports from January to October this year, a total of US$ 1.4 billion, Africa, where some Arab nations are located, answered to 6% of the total. Asia and Oceania – some Arab nations are on the Asian continent – received 7% of this total.
In the case of foreign sales of Brazilian pulp from January to October this year, however, Africa does not appear as a destination. But Asia, according to Bracelpa, consumed 23% of the total US$ 2.5 billion. This percentage, however, includes China, a large importer of the product. The main foreign buyer of Brazilian pulp in the first ten months of this year was Europe, with 54%, followed by Asia, and the main foreign market for paper was Latin America, which bought 56%, followed by North America, 13%.
According to Elizabeth, the Brazilian industry has managed to supply the growing global demand, mainly from China, due to investment made in recent years. Between 2003 and 2007, according to Bracelpa figures, the sector invested US$ 6.5 billion. "The investment made permitted us to leap into the boat of supply to China," said the Bracelpa president. Elizabeth stated that the foreign market should continue heated in coming years. The pulp and paper industry should invest another US$ 2 billion in 2008 and 2009 and another US$ 5.9 billion between 2010 and 2012.
The sector is going to work for Brazilian leadership in the pulp market. "Brazil is going to become one of the most important pulp export hubs," stated Elizabeth. The country is currently the sixth main world producer of pulp, losing only to the United States, Canada, China, Finland and Sweden. The target is to surpass Sweden in 2008 and to overtake Finland and come close to China in 2009. By the end of the year, Brazil should have produced up to 11.8 million tonnes of pulp and 8.9 million tonnes of paper. In 2008, production of pulp should rise to 12.8 million tonnes and paper to 9.2 million tonnes.
Starting next year, the organisation also wants to lead foreign discussions in the segment, says Elizabeth. "We want to take over the leadership in private sector forums and to bring them to Brazil," she said. Brazil has 220 companies in the sector and 1.4 million hectares of environmentally certified forests. The area with certified forests is growing between 15% and 20% a year in the country, according to Armando Santiago, forestry vice president at International Paper, a company in the sector. International Paper is one of the global giants in the sector of pulp and paper. According to Santiago, Brazil is in the ninth place in the world in the case of certified forests and in the first in Latin America.
*Translated by Mark Ament
