Johannes Bogren of Södra discusses the many challenges faced by the Specialty Paper Industry today and how the 2018 Specialty Papers Europe conference will address those challenges. 

 

Johannes Bogren, technical product manager & director at Södra, shared his insights on the Specialty Paper industry with Smithers Pira, co-organizer with TAPPI for Specialty Papers Europe 2018. He indicated that specialty paper producers will face more and more competition in the future from companies leaving the printing and writing paper segment for the more attractive specialty paper area and felt companies need to be cost competitive or have attractive unique products in order to be successful in the long-term. Both of these topics will be discussed at the Conference.

 

As a key presenter at the Conference, Bogren will share the progress of Södra’s Cell Värö mill which has increased its capacity to 700 000 tonnes annually. Södra, a world-leading producer of market pulp, has invested 1 billion Euro since 2014 in their pulp mills to improve both capacity and quality and, per Bogren, they are starting to see their investments pay off.

 

"The quality of our products is reflected in our customer’s end-products. The specialty papermaker is a challenge for every pulp maker since all producers have their own product and special demands on the pulp. To meet these demands, we have the most extensive product portfolio in the business, offering soft- and hardwood paper pulp as well as dissolving pulp, in total more than 50 variants."

 

A current industry trend featured at the Conference is the sustainable sourcing of raw materials. Bogren stated that companies need to use the resources of the world with ease and have a long term perspective. He also felt that a major innovation changing the industry is digitalization. Bogren is a Ph.D. in Forest Products and Chemical Engineering.

 

On April 23-25, 2018, over 200 specialty papers leaders from across the supply chain will meet in Cologne, Germany to discuss new technologies, emerging trends and current issues affecting the industry. Plan on joining your peers at Specialty Papers Europe 2018. Register today and use TAPPI’s promo code: SPEU18TAP to save an additional 15%.