Eio Shimokawa
Eio Shimokawa is Director of the Planning Division of the Forestry Agency of Japan. The Japanese pulp and paper industry has made remarkable progress since the end of World War II.
The country's paper production exceeded in 1953 the level of 1.5 million metric tons-the peak in the pre-war period-and by maintaining the annual production growth rate of 10-11 percent since 1960 it reached the level of 15.6 million tons in 1974, the second largest after the United States. Although Japan produced from its domestic resources 10 million tons of pulp, representing the largest portion of supply to its own paper industry, it was not enough to meet its requirements and the rest had to be manufactured from imported raw material. At present, the world's major pulp-producing countries are the United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden and the U.S.S.R, but Japan for lack of forestry resources is the only one having to rely on heavy imports of raw material for its pulp production. Securing this raw material is a highly important matter for the development of the Japanese pulp and paper industry and its development.
The industry had been dependent on domestic softwood resources until it succeeded through the introduction and development of new techniques in the early 1960s in utilizing small-size hardwood logs and mill residues, which had not been utilized before. In 1955 the total pulp wood supply consisted of 89 percent softwood and 11 percent hardwood and almost all (99.8 percent) were purchased in log form. But the situation changed drastically within 15 years, and by 1970, hardwood occupied about 60 percent of the total supply and, for the form of supply, about three quarters were provided in chips (see Table 1).
The industry took another successful step to meet the growing raw material needs when it introduced vessels especially for the transport of wood chips thereby lowering the cost of their import (Table 2 shows the trend and forecast of pulpwood supply in Japan)
TABLE 1. - CHANGE IN SPECIES AND FORMS OF PULPWOOD IN JAPAN (Percentage of supply)
|
|
1955 |
1960 |
1965 |
1970 |
|
SPECIES | ||||
|
Softwood |
89.0 |
63.7 |
47.2 |
42.5 |
|
Hardwood |
11.0 |
36.3 |
52.8 |
57.5 |
|
FORMS | ||||
|
Logs |
99.8 |
77.0 |
48.8 |
25.7 |
|
Chips |
0.2 |
23.0 |
51.2 |
74.3 |
SOURCE (Tables 1 and 2): Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Japan.
The Japanese pulp industry was the first in the world to utilize low-grade hardwood, which was commonly used as fuelwood, in order to cope with the softwood shortage. Also, it has established an efficient and economical raw material collection system in the form of wood chips which enabled it to utilize the small-size hardwood logs and mill residues.
Today, Japan has more than 7 000 chip mills widely spread throughout the country, and most are small sized. About 90 percent are operated as a side business of sawmillers. Of this, the mills which employ four or less workers represent 84 percent in terms of number of mills.
The total amount of wood chip production in 1975 was about 17 million m³ 53 percent of which from logs, 44 percent mill residues and 3 percent logging residues. In recent years and up to 1974 the import of wood chips had increased remarkably because of the stagnant domestic supply. However, as importation of wood chips is done through long-term contracts providing an almost constant annual supply, this practice seriously endangers the domestic industry at a time of recession when the demand decreases significantly.
To expand the domestic supply of wood chips, it is essential to fully utilize our poor wood resources, including even thinned wood, so far underutilized. Efforts are being made to work out effective measures for its utilization. On the other hand, as the control over public nuisance, such as mill noise, is being tightened in Japan, it is also necessary to help the industry to comply with such requirements.
Another problem consists in the existence of diverse methods for measuring wood chip volume in the deals between wood chip producers and pulp and paper mills. These methods must be unified soon.
Japan started to import wood chips on an experimental basis in 1963, and on a commercial basis in 1965 when specially designed ships for wood chip transport were put into service on the Japan-North American route. While imported wood chips amounted to 2.8 percent or 460 thousand m³ in the Japanese market in 1965, its share increased to 39 percent or 11 million m³ in 1975 (see Table 3, details on volume of imports by exporting countries and species). In 1975, 70 percent of the total import was softwood chips, from the United States. These American chips were from wood residues of sawmills and plywood mills in the States of Washington and Oregon. This importation is based on long-term (from 5 to 10 years) contracts between Japanese importers and American counterparts with a flow of constant volumes into the Japanese market every year.
TABLE 2. - TREND AND FORECAST OF PULP-WOOD SUPPLY IN JAPAN (1 000 m³)
|
|
1970 |
1975 |
1980 |
1985 |
|
Domestic |
22.605 |
16.996 |
20.000 |
20.000 |
|
Imports |
5.285 |
11.791 |
18.600 |
22.000 |
|
TOTAL |
27.910 |
28.187 |
38.600 |
42.000 |
Hardwood chips consist mainly of eucalypts from Australia and rubber and mangrove from Malaysia. As far as these homogeneous hardwood chips are concerned, a drastic expansion of their supply cannot be expected because of the relative scarcity of these wood resources. Utilization of mixed tropical hardwood, so-called "jungle wood", for pulping in Japan began in 1974 and wood chips were imported from Papua New Guinea. Further utilization of this kind of wood chips is strongly desired from the viewpoint of securing a stable supply of raw materials.
About 70 ships, specially designed and built for wood chip transport are currently chartered by the Japanese pulp and paper manufacturers and the dead weight of these ships varies from 20 to 50 thousand metric tons. Characteristics of wood chip imports in the future are expected to be as follows. Firstly, as already noted, Japan gets its wood chip almost entirely from the United States. But, considering the situation of demand and supply of pulpwood in that country, we will have to diversify and look for sources all over the world, particularly in the U.S.S.R., Central and North America, southeast Asia and Oceania.
Secondly, demand for wood chips in Japan will have to be met more and more through so-called "develop and-import" schemes, in which Japan helps the resource-endowed developing countries with capital investment and technical assistance. In this case, it will also be necessary to invest in the establishment of infrastructure and in reforestation.
Thirdly, we will have to develop more techniques for making pulp from the lesser-known species. We have already made a start with pulp production on a commercial basis from mixed tropical hardwood of Papua New Guinea. If techniques for making pulp from any types of mixed tropical hardwood are further developed, hopefully the tight situation of demand and supply of pulpwood in Japan will be much improved.
In the near future, the develop and import schemes by Japanese enterprises will further proceed to pulp and paper production in the developing countries. The first of such activities already can be seen in Brazil.
A Japanese-Brazilian joint venture which was launched in 1973 will carry out the entire range of processes, from afforesting the land to producing pulp and paper.
TABLE 3. - JAPAN'S IMPORT OF WOOD CHIPS BY COUNTRIES AND SPECIES (1 000 m³)
|
|
|
1969 |
1970 |
1971 |
1972 |
1973 |
1974 |
1975 |
|
U.S.A. |
N¹ |
3.222 |
4.244 |
4.505 |
5.733 |
7.473 |
8.333 |
7.196 |
|
L² |
- |
38 |
- |
- |
92 |
343 |
505 |
|
|
TOTAL |
3.222 |
4.282 |
4.505 |
5.733 |
7.565 |
8.681 |
7.701 |
|
|
U.S.S.R |
N |
- |
- |
- |
31 |
85 |
247 |
391 |
|
L |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
|
|
TOTAL |
- |
- |
- |
31 |
85 |
250 |
391 |
|
|
New Zealand |
N |
16 |
147 |
154 |
212 |
236 |
276 |
329 |
|
L |
- |
5 |
20 |
17 |
62 |
47 |
29 |
|
|
TOTAL |
16 |
152 |
174 |
229 |
298 |
323 |
358 |
|
|
Australia |
N |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
L |
5 |
- |
304 |
883 |
2.033 |
2.584 |
1.963 |
|
|
TOTAL |
5 |
- |
304 |
883 |
2.033 |
2.584 |
1.963 |
|
|
Malaysia |
N |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
36 |
- |
|
L |
131 |
487 |
514 |
553 |
606 |
813 |
687 |
|
|
TOTAL |
131 |
487 |
514 |
553 |
606 |
849 |
687 |
|
|
Papua New Guinea |
N |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
L |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
78 |
161 |
|
|
TOTAL |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
78 |
161 |
|
|
Indonesia |
L |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
L |
- |
- |
- |
11 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
TOTAL |
- |
- |
- |
11 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
Korea, Rep. of |
N |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
|
L |
- |
- |
8 |
23 |
35 |
27 |
- |
|
|
TOTAL |
- |
- |
8 |
23 |
35 |
30 |
- |
|
|
China |
N |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
L |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
2 |
|
|
TOTAL |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
2 |
|
|
Others |
N |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
L |
8 |
4 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
TOTAL |
8 |
4 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
GRAND TOTAL |
N |
3.238 |
4.391 |
4.658 |
5.976 |
7.794 |
8.901 |
7.916 |
|
L |
143 |
533 |
848 |
1.488 |
2.827 |
3.895 |
3.348 |
|
|
TOTAL |
3.381 |
4.924 |
5.506 |
7.464 |
10.621 |
12.796 |
11.264 |
SOURCE: Ministry of Finance, Japan. ¹ Coniferous - ² Non-coniferous.
