Packaging Grades
Stay Competitive
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This strategy manifests itself in the form of continuous process improvements and upgrades to maximize the return on current assets and to maintain the competitive and financial viability of these facilities. The longer term effort results in addition of new production capacity to meet the steady increases in consumption. It is very important that the industry continues the current philosophy of dismantling older processes as the new ones come on line. Historically, these older facilities, in new ownership, have been proven to provide the additional low cost product that tips the supply/demand ratio and lowers the price of the entire grade family. In periods of slow economic activity, the strong companies have invested in process upgrades to improve yield and quality. These investments are not capital intensive and require only short production outages. Additionally, these short outages serve to keep the inventory in balance during the slower periods. A key area of opportunity for the smaller projects is to improve the process moisture characteristics. The typical application uses a combination of steam showers in the forming and press sections and remoisturizing sprays before the reel. Mills report substantial quality improvements, superior raw material efficiency and increased paper machine productivity. |
These results are seen in reduced rejects at the reel, increased production on dryer-limited grades, and raw material savings through increased moisture levels. It is a real challenge to combine products manufactured as commodity materials and convert them to a highly engineered structure (box). Reductions in MD and CD moisture and weight variability significantly contribute to better performance and yield in this process. The key benefits beyond on-machine quality and yield are the additional results in the converting and distribution channels. These are the true value-added improvements that produce performance throughout the life of the finished box. In summary, the process performance and economic challenges in the packaging grades are difficult. The prudent use of resources to optimize today's return coupled with additional capacity as the demand increases can result in a healthy and viable industry. While it will always be essentially a commodity business model, it is one that meets a continuing increase in demand and can generate favorable returns in the long run. Page |
