Tissue World Magazine
Alexandra Stuthridge, Technical Business Manager, BioProducts Institute (BPI)

By Bill Burns, senior consultant, Fisher International

The Southeastern United States represents about 40% of the total United States’ towel and tissue production. There are three major producers that account for three quarters of the production (Figure 1). Within the Southeast, the production is concentrated across three states: Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina (Figure 2). Georgia is the largest producing state with 758 thousand metric tonnes per year.

This area is very diverse in machine configurations. There are mills with predominately Thru Air Dry (TAD) technology while others have Conventional Wet Press (CWP) technology in both wet and dry crepe configurations. There are locations with mid 1900’s formers, presses and dryends as well as the latest TAD and TAD-like configurations. Predominately, the distribution of machines favours the 40k to 80k production capacity range (Figure 3).

Sizes vary from very narrow to the widest machines in the world. Likewise, there are slow machines as well as some of the fastest machines in the world (Figure 4).

The Southeast is also fibre diverse. There is a paper-only mill operating on all purchased fibre and integrated mills using internally produced pulp. There are also mills operating with all recycled fibre (Figure 5). Often the choice is driven by the end products made at these mills. The Southeast serves both consumer and commercial tissue markets with products positioned across the spectrum of performance levels.

Southeastern United States in numbers

40% Amount of America’s total towel and tissue production
3 Major producers that account for three quarters of production
758 Thousand metric tpy produced by Georgia

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The source for market data and analysis in this article is FisherSolve™. Data tables behind Figures 1 – 12 can be obtained from Fisher International. Email requests to [email protected].

About Fisher International, Inc.

Fisher International has supported the pulp and paper industry for over 25 years with business intelligence and management consulting. Fisher International’s powerful proprietary databases, analysis tools, and expert consultants are indispensable resources to the industry’s producers, suppliers, investors, and buyers worldwide.

FisherSolve™ is the pulp and paper industry’s premier database and analysis tool. Complete and accurate, FisherSolve is unique in describing the assets and operations of every mill in the world (making 50 TPD or more), modeling the mass-energy balance of each, analyzing their production costs, predicting their economic viability, and providing a wealth of information necessary for strategic planning and implementation. FisherSolve is a product of Fisher International, Inc.

For more information visit: www.fisheri.com or email [email protected] USA: +1-203-854-5390

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