PRODUCTION FOR SELF-CONSUMPTION AND FOR SALE

It is customary in the pulp and paper industry to distinguish between concerns which both manufacture pulp and convert it into paper, designated as "integrated" or "self-contained" concerns, and concerns which conduct only one of these two stages of production.

A paper mill which buys wood pulp is ordinarily designated as a "converting" mill. By some of the self-contained concerns pulp and paper manufacturing is carried on at the same location; by others the pulp is produced in one plant and the paper in another, perhaps at a long distance. There are some concerns which have pulp mills in Canada and paper mills in the United States, but no similar arrangements are known to exist as between the United States and European pulp-producing countries.

The distinction between integrated concerns and other concerns is of course not a rigid one. A pulp mill which is affiliated with a paper mill may sell part of its production to other concerns, and the paper mill may buy part of the pulp it uses from other concerns. The nature of the transactions is affected considerably by the distinction between the different kinds of pulp.

Table 7, compiled from the biennial census returns, shows wood pulp production in the United States, distinguishing that produced for self-consumption by the same concern and that produced for sale TABLE 7.-Wood pulp: United States production for consumption1 and for sale in specified years

[Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census]

1 Wood pulp made and consumed in the same plant or transferred to and consumed in other plants operated by the same companies.

Of the approximately 4,800,000 tons of pulp manufactured in 1929 nearly 4,100,000 tons were consumed in the same plant or transferred to other plants operated by the same concern. Approximately 740,000 tons, or about 15 per cent, were produced for sale to other manufacturers of paper. The proportion produced for sale was somewhat higher in 1929 than in 1925 or 1927, a change connected with the growth of the wood-pulp industry on the Pacific coast, since the Pacific coast mills sell a large part of their output. Census figures for 1931 are not yet available.

The domestic "converting" paper mills have for a good many years past imported more of the pulp they used than they have purchased in the United States. As already stated, some of the pulp they import is from pulp mills which they themselves control in Canada. In 1929 paper mills in the United States purchased, roughly, 740,000 tons of domestic pulp from pulp mills not affiliated with themselves and the great bulk of the 1,886,000 tons of pulp which came from foreign countries during that year; they thus drew about 70 per cent of their supplies from foreign sources.

For each separate kind of pulp the quantity produced for sale is much less than the quantity produced for self-consumption by the same or affiliated plants. The proportion is especially small for ground wood, where in 1929 only 2 per cent of the output was made for sale to other concerns.

Between 1925 and 1929 the proportion produced for sale increased materially for sulphite pulp, the quantity rising from 265,000 tons, or 18.9 per cent of the total output, to 453,000 tons, or 26.9 per cent. During the same period there was a decrease in the proportion of sulphate pulp produced for sale, but the absolute amount produced for sale was much larger in 1929 than in 1925. For soda pulp and ground wood pulp there was a decrease in the absolute amount produced for sale as well as a decrease in proportion.

RATIO OF PRODUCTION TO CAPACITY

An analysis of census statistics of pulp mill capacity for alternate years 1919-1929 shows a considerable variation in the ratio of production to capacity at different periods. The ratio also varies according to the kind of pulp. The lowest ratio of actual production to capacity for the years shown was in 1921, when it was only 61.4 per cent; the highest utilization of plant was in 1929 when the output represented 80.6 per cent of capacity. Census figures for 1931 are not yet available. On the basis of the returns to the commission's questionnaire recently sent to pulp mills, the capacity of reporting mills was 0.7 per cent higher in 1930 than in 1929. A further increase of 0.7 per cent seems to have taken place in 1931.

Details of the relationship of production to capacity are shown in Table 8.

TABLE 8.-Wood pulp: Capacity of equipment and ratio of production1 to capacity [Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census]

DOMESTIC PRODUCTION, BY REGIONS

The production of wood pulp in the United States is rather widely distributed. In general, however, pulp is manufactured in or close to the areas where the pulpwood is produced. There are some pulp mills which utilize in whole or in part pulpwood imported from Canada; these are for the most part located rather close to the Canadian border.

Five regions of pulp production may be distinguished: (I) The Northeastern, (II) the Lake States, (III) Ohio and West Virginia, (IV) the Southern States, and (V) the Pacific coast. In most tables in this report it is necessary to combine the data for Regions III and IV in order to avoid disclosure of the operations of individual con

CHART F

WOOD PULP: UNITED STATES PRODUCTION BY REGIONS
FOR SPECIFIED YEARS, 1909 -1930.

REGION I MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW YORK, AND PENNSYLVANIA.

cerns. Table 9 shows the output by regions for selected years, also data for the leading individual States, Regions III and IV being combined.

This table brings out the fact that there has been a gradual shift of the industry toward the West and the South. The Northeastern region has still the largest output, reporting over 40 per cent of the total tonnage in 1930, but the production in that region in 1930 was only about 10 per cent larger than in 1909, whereas the total production for the country had increased over 80 per cent. There was some decline in the absolute output of this region between 1926 and 1929, and a more marked decline took place in 1930. There was a rapid gain in output in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin down to about 1926, since which time little change has occurred. A still more rapid increase appeared between 1909 and 1926 in the output of the Pacific

Coast States and this increase has continued, the production of that region in 1930 being more than twice as great as in 1926; some increase appeared even as compared with 1929. There has also been a considerable recent increase in the production in Regions III and IV which represent chiefly the South.

TABLE 9.-Wood pulp: Quantity and value of production, by States and groups

of States

[Source: 1909 and 1919, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Statistical Bulletin No. 21; 1926–1930, U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census]

Inclusive of 4,117 tons of unclassified pulp.

8, 681, 479 6, 712, 776 36, 012, 973

8,754, 909 5,875, 711

32, 590, 012

51,978, 690 52, 002, 343 49, 469, 585 51, 407, 228 47, 220, 632

30, 489, 551 33, 375, 267 36, 206, 150 38, 944, 329 34, 576, 567

6,709, 711 9, 201, 570 4,779, 942 5, 378, 258 11, 489, 653 14, 579, 828

11, 974, 544
6, 180, 899
18, 155, 443

18, 574, 577 18, 103, 4887, 011, 203 6, 170, 650 25, 585, 780| 24, 274, 138 209, 989, 362 207, 332, 666 206, 490, 469 223, 178, 096192, 224, 565

Exclusive of data for small quantities of rayon and old magazine pulp.
Not reported in statistics for the years 1909 and 1919.