WHAT IS PAPER?

Paper, one of the most important necessities of humanity has been in use for thousands of years. Paper, in the sense we use today, was discovered by the Chinese in 105 AD and came to Europe after almost a thousand years in the 12th century. The technology that developed throughout centuries created the opportunity for high quantity production and the first modern factory in Turkey started production in 1936.

Almost all the nations with developed and rich forestry resources who understood the importance of paper succeeded to build up a place for themselves at the top of the world paper industry with the rational studies they performed. Among these USA, China, Japan, Germany and England occupy the front seats. The developing countries regard integrated paper production plants as the criterion for development.    

Today, in the world 400 million tons of annual paper production is made in over 10 thousand production facilities by 3 million employees. This creates a volume of trade worth 500 billion dollars. 

In the energy concentrated paper sector the raw material is of utmost importance, following the competition in 1991 and with the effect of globalisation, company unifications and purchases came to the agenda, and few companies became dominant in production.     

Besides, the companies who have the intension to stay in the sector should not neglect the innovative investments to raise the product quality and productivity.

The paper industry in Turkey that developed in the organisation of SEKA has been handed over to the private sector as a result of privatisation applications; apart from these factories many paper mills were established by the private sector in recent years. Today, the annual production capacity of paper in Turkey is 3.5 million tons. In 2007, in the world listings Turkey was 25th in paper production and 17th in consumption. These figures state that Turkey is a paper importing country. The steady increase in consumption per person figures point out that there is an important potential towards development.   

In recent years, while the number of paper mills is decreasing in both in Turkey and in the world, the total capacity is increasing. Paper, whose final product unit price is high as compared to many other sectors, has a high mobility and can easily reach the point of demand. The same tendency is expected to continue in the coming years.