Conference Information > Past Conference Program

As from Tuesday, 24 March onwards, the conference sessions will take place on the 2nd level of the Exhibit Hall (Acropolis – Palais des Expositions), Nice, France

Conference Hours:

Cocktail Reception:
Tuesday 24 March 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Negresco Hotel

Monday, 23 March 2009 – MORNING (09:00 – 11:50 hrs)

Welcoming Remarks
Hugh O’Brian, Conference Chairman, Tissue World

Keynote Address
Managing Challenges on All Fronts - Markets, Energy, Sustainability, Economics, Environment

Keynote Speaker Jan Johansson, President and CEO, SCA, Sweden

The keynote address at Tissue World 2009 will be presented by Jan Johansson, CEO and President of SCA, Europe’s largest tissue company.

SCA is a global consumer goods and paper company, producing and marketing personal care products, tissue, packaging solutions, publication papers and solid-wood products in more than 90 countries. Employing around 50,000 people, SCA had annual sales in 2007 of EURO 11.4 billion with the share of sales by business area in 2007 coming from: Tissue 31%, Personal Care 21%, Packaging 31% and Forest Products 17%.

Europe and North America are the company’s main markets, but the Group also holds strong positions in certain segments in Latin America, Asia and Australasia. For the future, SCA expects that expansion will continue mainly in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe.

Management and Markets Session

The Global Tissue Market Outlook
Esko Uutela, Tissue Market Consultant, RISI-EU Consulting, Germany

World tissue consumption well exceeded 27 million tons in 2007 and continued on its long-term growth pattern of nearly four percent per year. The annual volume growth is now about one million tons and even more, as strong tissue demand growth in emerging markets, not in only China but also in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Near and Middle East, counterbalances slowing growth in the traditional main markets. By 2016, world tissue consumption is expected to rise by more than 10 million tons to exceed 38 million tons.

The global tissue business is one of the few continuously growing and dynamic paper industry branches, attracting new players to invest in new facilities, even in maturing markets such as North America. Tissue has been principally local or regional business but is now becoming increasingly international and competitive. Exports from China have grown strongly and are competing successfully with local producers in several Asian-Pacific markets. Chinese tissue exports have also entered the North American continent.

Massive investments with new capacity coming on stream showing its effect in 2008-2009 together with the recent turmoil in the world economy will negatively affect the global tissue business, in spite of the fact that tissue is a rather non-cyclical product. Although growing world markets can absorb increasing quantities of new capacity, it is likely that 2009-2010 will remain less prosperous than the period 2004-2007 in the global tissue business.

What Tissue Producers are Doing to Improve Awareness of the Big Advantages of Tissue Solutions
Roberto Berardi, Chairman, European Tissue Symposium, Belgium

ETS (the European Association of the Tissue producers) is increasingly focusing its activity on studies and initiatives aimed at promoting Tissue Products in the market place, particularly in those segments, like AFH hand towels, where alternative technologies (textile, air driers) exist. Recent studies include:

• A Users Preference study run in different countries among Tissue Towels, Textiles and Air Driers, which clearly indicates that tissue wins everywhere on all the aspects.

• An Hygiene study recently completed by Westminster University, which confirms that the number of bacteria left on the hands after drying is substantially lower for Paper Towels, when compared with any Air Drier, including the new generation ones. Important measures of the contamination of the environment are also compared

• A deep LCA study with KCL in Finland about the carbon foot printing of toilet tissue and hand towels and the LCA of hand towels.

The outcome of these studies and the initiatives to promote their awareness will be addressed during this presentation and also in other specific sections.

A Comparison of the Drying Efficiency and Hygiene of Paper Towels with Electric Hand Dryers
Keith Redway, Senior Academic, University of Westminster, London UK

This paper will look at the comparative efficiency and hygiene of paper towels and electric dryers for hand drying. It will consist of four parts as follows:

Part A: The drying efficiency of different hand drying methods.

Part B: Changes in the number of different types of bacteria on the hands before and after drying using paper towel and electric hand dryers (both warm air and jet air).

Part C: Potential contamination of other users and the washroom environment caused by paper towel and electric hand dryers (both warm air and jet air).

Part D: Bacterial sampling of jet air dryers in public washrooms

Monday, 23 March 2009
AFTERNOON (13:30 – 16:50 hrs)

Carbon Labelling and Application to Tissue Products
Roland McKinney, Senior Consultant, Energy and Sustainability, SKF, UK

Carbon footprint labels were launched in April 2007, in the UK, when the first consumer product (potato chips) carried on its wrapping estimated carbon dioxide emissions arising from their consumption. Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, having worked with the Carbon Trust, introduced carbon footprint labels on a range of products in April 2008. Although these did not include any tissue products, Tesco have stated that they plan to have carbon labels on all the products they sell.

However, carbon labelling is far from simple so methodology and calculations will be open to dispute. Currently, there are no national or international standards, though in the UK the Carbon Trust and DEFRA (both UK government-sponsored bodies) have recently published PAS 2050, a publicly available specification, expected to become the basis for an international standard.

This paper examines the PAS 2050 as well as alternative methods available for assessing carbon footprints and discusses their respective strengths and weaknesses, and illustrates these by a simple comparison of different tissue products based on virgin and recycled fibres.

The Role of Healthy Forest in the Global CO2 Balance
Roine Morin, Environmental Manager, Södra Skogsägarna, Sweden

The forests of Sweden and Europe, growing and well-managed, are most probably Europe’s greatest contribution to countering the doomsday scenario represented by the threat of climate change. All growing forests take in and bind CO², exchanging it for oxygen via the famous photosynthesis process.

The term “well-managed” is a key one here as actively growing forests bind much more CO² than mature forests. In Sweden, for example, after about 80-90 years the trees are no longer binding more CO² than they are producing. The ecosystem is balanced.

The impact of forests can be enormous. In Sweden the total level of CO² emissions from all activities is some 54 million tonnes per year, while the Swedish forests bind more than 100 million tonnes annually through growth. Increasing growth by 50 per cent, which is considered to be feasible, would be an extremely costeffective way to further reduce CO², equivalent to the total amount of Sweden’s emissions.

This presentation will explain the important role that well-managed forests can play in the global balance of CO² in the atmosphere and the Carbon footprint of Södra.

Tissue Prices: As an important reminder, please note that the future direction of prices for tissue products is not to be discussed at any point during the Tissue World Conference sessions. While historical prices are a matter of fact and can be discussed, any presentation that may affect future pricing is strictly forbidden.

Technical Sessions
Monday, 23 March 2009 - Afternoon
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 - All Day
Wednesday, 25 March 2009 - Morning

Monday, 23 March 2009
AFTERNOON ( 14:40 – 16:50 hrs)

1. Papermaking Developments

Tuesday, 24 March 2009
MORNING (08:30 – 12:00 hrs)

2. Converting, Wrapping, Packaging and Logistics

Tuesday, 24 March 2009
AFTERNOON (13:30 – 16:45 hrs)

3. Energy Reduction and Savings

4. Softness, Strength and Surface Treatment

Wednesday, 25 March 2009
MORNING (08:30 – 12:15 hrs)

5. Fibers, Water and Raw Materials

6. Process Control, Testing and Maintenance

Thursday 26 March 2009
MORNING (09:00 – 12:00 hrs)

YANKEE DRYER OPERATIONS SESSION