THE OUTLOOK FOR TIMBER DEMANDS 



57 



pulps required for each grade. Since most grades 

 of paper and board can be manufactured from a 

 variety of pulp mixtures and other fibrous mate- 

 rials, projections of potential use of the various 

 types of pulp necessarily have a much larger 

 measure of uncertainty than projections for all 

 grades of pulp combined. 



Net Imports Make Up 5 Percent of 

 Wood Pulp Consumed in the U.S. 



Imports of wood pulp in 1962 amounted to 2.8 

 million tons and exports 1.2 million tons (table 41). 

 A rise in pulp exports is considered likely in view 

 of prospective increases in world demands for pulp, 

 paper, and board ; limited supplies of high-quality 

 fiber resources in the heavy pulp and paper con- 

 suming areas of the world such as Western Europe 

 and Japan; and the growing competitive ability of 

 U.S. industry to supply certain grades of pulp. 

 However, in view of the large increases in pro- 

 jected demands for wood pulp in the United States, 

 it has been assumed that imports will rise to an 

 even greater extent, with a consequent increase in 

 net imports from 1.6 million tons in 1962 to about 

 5.1 million tons by 2000. 



Projected Demand for Pulpwood 

 Nearly Triples by 2000 



The total pulpwood required to produce the 

 pulp, paper, and board products consumed in the 

 United States in 1962 amounted to 52.8 million 

 cords (table 42 and fig. 26). This included 42.8 

 million cords of domestic pulpwood, 1.3 million 

 cords of pulpwood from Canada, and the equiva- 

 lent of 8.8 million cords of wood in the form of net 

 imports of paper, board, and wood pulp. 



The projections of demand for pulp, paper, and 

 board indicate a prospective requirement for 

 some 141.5 million cords of pulpwood by 2000." 

 It is further estimated that about 125.5 million 

 cords, or 89 percent of these requirements, may 

 be supplied from domestic forests, with about 16 

 million cords coming from net imports of pulp- 

 wood, wood pulp, paper, and board. 



The volume of net imports of pulpwood, includ- 

 ing the pulpwood equivalent of pulp, paper, and 

 board imported from Canada and other countries, 

 has been fairly stable since the late 1940's. In 

 terms of relative importance, however, net im- 

 ports have dropped from about a third of the total 

 U.S. pulpwood requirements in 1940 to about a 

 fifth of the total in 1962. A continued decline 

 in the proportion of foreign pulpwood used in 

 supplying U.S. markets for pulp, paper, and 

 board has been projected to about a tenth of the 

 total demand in 2000. 



Table 41. — Consumption, net imports, and domestic 

 production of wood pulp, 1920-2000 



[Million tons] 



Year 



Consump- 

 tion 



Net 

 imports 



Domestic 

 production 



1920 



1930 



1940 



4.7 



6.4 



9.7 



17.1 



26.6 



29.5 



0.9 

 1.8 

 .7 

 2.3 

 1.2 

 1.6 



3.8 

 4.6 

 9 



1950 . 



14 8 



1960 



1962 



25.3 

 27.9 



PROJECTIONS 



Sources: 1920-40, United States Pulp Producers Asso- 

 ciation, Inc., Wood Pulp Statistics, 1963, reporting statis- 

 tics published by the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

 1950-62, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the 

 Census, Current Industrial Reports, Pulp, Paper and 

 Board, Annual, and Business and Defense Services Ad- 

 ministration, Pulp, Paper and Board, Quarterly. Projec- 

 tions, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 



744-350 O — 65 5 



Twenty Percent of Pulpwood 

 From Plant Byproducts in 1962 



Production of pulp chips from plant byproducts 

 at sawmills, veneer mills, and other wood-using 

 plants has increased rapidly in recent years and in 

 1962 amounted to about 9 million cords, some 

 20 percent of all pulpwood consumed at U.S. mills 

 in that year. Unused coarse residues at primary 



2" In converting projected demands for wood pulp to 

 volumes of pulpwood required, it was assumed that the 

 average ratio of pulpwood used per ton of sulfite and 

 sulfate pulps would decline about 10 percent from the 

 averages of recent years of about 2 cords per ton for 

 sulfite pulp and 1.8 cords per ton for sulfate pulp. Such 

 declines are anticipated in response to increasing use of 

 the higher yield hardwoods and technological improve- 

 ments in pulping processes. For other grades of pulp, 

 it was assumed that current ratios of pulpwood use, i.e., 

 about 2.2 cords per ton for dissolving pulp, 1.1 cords per 

 ton for semichemical pulp, and about 1 cord per ton for 

 groundwood and defibrated or exploded pulps, would not 

 change significantly. 



