Freight forwarding specialist deugro group is currently working on a pulp mill project in Uruguay slated to deliver 250,000 freight tons of breakbulk and 6,000 containers from various origins worldwide to central Uruguay. 

deugro group has invested in the pulp and paper industry and set up a new industry vertical with dedicated teams in strategic markets. The vertical will focus not only on capital projects but also support producers, mill owners and equipment suppliers with other logistics needs throughout the supply chain.

In its market report, deugro group noted that many believed that the pulp and paper industry was going to shrink with digitalisation on the rise. And yes, this might be true for graphic paper, but the pulp and paper industry as a whole is growing as other products fill the gap: tissue paper for hygiene products and packaging board, to name just two examples. In 2020, different research institutes valued the global pulp and paper market at $519 billion and estimated it to reach $680 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.45 percent.

deugro added that the industry is changing and transforming. Graphic papers, such as newsprint and coated/uncoated papers, will continue to face a severe decline in demand and adaptation of production capacity. The global production of paper and paper board sums up to more than 400 million metric tons (MT) each year mainly packaging paper and board have faced significant growth in recent years due to the e-commerce boom. Transport packaging for e-commerce is estimated to drive about half of the growth in demand.

The company’s pulp and paper industry vertical is led by Matias Setälä, regional director Scandinavia & Eastern Europe, for deugro. Together with the deugro worldwide project teams Setälä is working on the large pulp mill project in Uruguay.

Mark Hollenstein, regional director South America and lead South America, said, “South America has been and will continue to be one of the major project destinations for the pulp and paper industry.” Anna Ude, regional sales manager and lead for Europe, deugro added that Europe brings about 25 percent to the global production. She also noted that deugro is in line with the European Commission that believes the European pulp and paper industry can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 62 percent by 2050 compared to 2015 levels—even with overall increased production.

“Especially in China, prices for all paper products have increased. The pulp prices experienced an increase of about 33 percent year-on-year—2021 was an outstanding year for the Chinese pulp and paper industry,” explains Dirk Wittkowski, regional director – China and Pakistan and regional lead China, deugro.

deugro has been active during the year delivering oversized cargo totalling 2,241 metric tons from three European ports to its final destination in Beihai, China for its client Voith. The paper machine equipment was shipped from the ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven, Germany and Genoa, Italy to Beihai, China from January to August 2021.