TABLE 3.-Wood pulp: Domestic consumption in specified years WOOD PULP: UNITED STATES CONSUMPTION PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS, BY CLASSES The cheapest form of wood pulp is that mechanically ground, without use of chemical processes. This is not ordinarily subjected to bleaching process, but relatively small quantities are bleached. Ground wood represents normally about one-third of the consumption in the United States, the other two-thirds being pulp made by chemical processes. Of the several kinds of chemical pulp, the most important is sulphite, followed by sulphate and soda. About two-fifths of the sulphite pulp consumed is bleached, but the bulk of the consumption of sulphate and soda pulp is unbleached. CHART C WOOD PULP: UNITED STATES PRODUCTION COMPARED Table 4 shows for selected years the domestic production and imports of each of the principal kinds of wood pulp and the proportion which the domestic and imported product, respectively, forms of the combined total (this total does not precisely represent consumption in the United States because there are some small exports). The more detailed data of production and imports are shown in Tables 5 and 6. The figures of production for 1931 are approximate only, being estimated from the data of the plants canvassed by the Tariff Commission in the present investigation. CHART E WOOD PULP: UNITED STATES PPODUCTION AND IMPORTS, BY KINDS, TABLE 4.-Wood pulp: United States production and imports, by kinds, in specified years [Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, 1919 and 1931-Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States, 1926-1930-Bureau of the Census.] Percentage which production and imports respectively formed of combined production and imports Table 4 shows that during recent years ground wood pulp and sulphite pulp have been approximately equal items in domestic production, so far as quantity is concerned, but that ground wood is much less important than sulphite in imports. In both production and imports the bleached product is important in the case of sulphite but not in the case of the other kinds. In 1931 imports represented about 46 per cent of the combined total for production and imports of unbleached sulphite, 34%1⁄2 per cent of bleached sulphite, and 311⁄2 per cent of sulphate (unbleached and bleached together). For ground wood pulp the proportion of imports was very much smaller, about 13 per cent, and for soda pulp imports were insignificant. There has been a decrease in the production of every important kind of wood pulp since 1929. A reduction appears also in the imports of each of the principal kinds, the decline being most marked in unbleached sulphite and being relatively slight in bleached sulphite. Comparing 1929 with 1926, there was a downward trend in the domestic production of unbleached sulphite and of ground wood but a marked increase in the production of bleached sulphite and still more of sulphate. The imports of all the principal kinds, except ground wood, increased considerably during this period, but there was no conspicuous change in the ratio of production and imports of any of the classes except a considerable decline in the ratio of imports of sulphate. TABLE 5.-Wood pulp: Domestic production, by kinds, in specified years 1 Not shown separately to avoid disclosing operations of individual mills. Not estimated. Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, except for 1931. |