16 SMURFIT KAPPA ANDRITZ
Pulp Paper & Logistics
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products. Technology is helping us to produce better, lighter papers that retain their mechanical specifications. Together with smart design, this is allowing us to reduce the amount of packaging required to protect and deliver goods. Indeed, a lot of effort has been put into flutings, the backbone of a box. My belief is that more is to come and eventually liners too will continue to decrease substantially. That said, strength continues
to be essential in highly demanding supply chains, like e-commerce. Here virgin fibre, meaning kraftliner, is needed. While we have learned to extract the best out of recycled fibres, when strength is required, and conditions are really tough – such as high moisture, long waiting times, risk of puncture – only kraftliner can do the job. Even high quality mock kraft is no match for the existing product.
May/June 2018
Lastly, printability remains, and is likely to increase, as an important factor in the point of sales function. Whether intended for e-commerce or shelf packaging, white grades are increasingly in demand. Smurfit Kappa today is a clear
European leader in containerboard, with an existing system of close to five million tonnes of production covering nearly all grades. Yet Smurfit Kappa has a robust strategic plan to grow, adapt and develop in order to meet these demands. We continue to develop high
performance and lightweight capacity to support recycled paper demand; we continue to grow our kraftliner system, to serve ecommerce and highly demanding supply chain needs, and we enhance our white portfolio both in kraft and recycled grades with the aim to serve the growing needs for high quality printing papers. And of course, we are expanding
our recycling business to close the circular economy loop.
Unique expertise Over the years, Smurfit Kappa has developed a unique expertise in all the steps of the valuable circular loops of paper-based packaging – and how it can provide solutions for our customers. We also understand the appetite
for less packaging and we can help our customers to achieve that, as well as meet their demands for light, strong packaging made of paper that is an ideal canvas for any branding. For all these reasons and more, I
believe paper is both the present and the future of packaging. We still have a significant opportunity ahead of us. We need to discover, with our customers, and with retailers, if and how paper-based applications can replace non-sustainable material such as plastic.
Smurfit Kappa’s Nettingsdorf paper mill in Austria has the lowest energy consumption in the industry
While the solution is obvious for elements in direct competition, such as trays in supermarkets or plastic bags in shops, other areas will require creativity. More than ever, I believe that we
are in the right place at the right time and that for all us involved in the paper industry, this is an exciting moment that is full of potential. * Laurent Sellier is chief operating officer for Paper & Board for Smurfit Kappa Europe. With a professional background in finance, Sellier has worked in all aspects of the containerboard sector for more than 20 years, in raw material markets, industrial activity or market and product development. He joined Jefferson Smurfit Group (later to be Smurfit Kappa Group) in 1994.
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