No Tears for Tissue Manufacturers as Global Demand Grows

The Tissue Market in 2019

Tissue paper production and consumption are predicted to continue to grow because of factors like urbanisation, increasing disposable incomes, consumer spending, and population growth. The largest tissue manufacturers and markets are North America in front of China and Europe.

The global tissue growth has been just below 4% in the last decade with big regional differences. The major growth has been in the emerging markets, accounting for 80% of global growth. China (accounts for 40% of growth) and Latin America has seen the largest growth.

Globally, virgin tissue prices have decreased severely over the last 12 months. One reason is that tissue is one of the paper products that follow the pulp prices the most but also the demand/supply ratio is apparently not in balance.

The net capacity change has been between 2-3 million metric tonnes (MT)/year, the last 3-4 years. The consumption growth has only been between 1.3-1.3 MT.

A classification of the market can be the two broad segments away from home (the buyer is the institution where the user is taking place, office, hotels, hospital, etc.) and at home (end consumer is the buyer). Globally the at home segments is the largest segment (60%), but in India, the away from home market accounts for 60% of the tissue consumption.

The Key Players

The tissue supply side is highly fragmented due to fairly low entry costs and there are several hundred entrepreneurs in the business. SCA is the largest supplier ahead of Kimberly Clark and Asia Pulp And Paper (APP). APP is the fastest growing supplier.

Four Main Product Lines

The tissue paper markets typically consist of four main product lines: toilet rolls, towels, napkins, and facial tissue. The raw material is either 100% virgin pulp or recycled material or a mix of the two. The strongest growth comes from Virgin fibre tissue products.

Toilet Tissue

This is the most purchased commodity in European and American countries. Typically, it is the lowest grade of fibres used for tissue paper and can be rippled, perfumed, colored, patterned, medicated or treated with aloe vera, or other perfumes.

Facial Tissues

The facial tissues or handkerchiefs are folded and put in pocket-size packages for ease of carriage, or a cardboard box dispenser for use around the home.

Paper Towel

The second most popular tissue paper by consumption; it is used in place of a conventional cloth towel, for drying hands, wiping windows and other surfaces and dusting.

Table Napkins

These are offered from one up to four plies, and in a vast number of colours, patterns, folds, and sizes.

Focus on the Indian Tissue Market

The tissue paper market is different in India from other markets due to factors such as culture, disposable income, perception of tissue paper, etc. In India water is the preferred mode for cleaning and tissue products are considered an unnecessary luxury expense.

The Indian tissue market is expected to grow at a very high rate (around 15%) but starting from a very low level. The main market volumes are expected to come from toilet tissue and napkins.

Tissue Trends

A clear trend in the tissue industry is the increased demand for higher quality products (creating innovations like Voith’s ATMOS technology, Metso’s Structured Tissue Technology (STT) and Valmet’s New Tissue Technology (NTT)). The demand for more sustainable products and manufacturing processes is creating room for alternatives like bamboo tissue, and alternative raw material.