How AI Can Make Pulp and Paper Mills More Cost-Competitive

Pulp & Paper Canada (06/09/26) Goel, Abhinav

The global pulp and paper packaging industry is in the midst of a structural reset. For the past several years, the industry has endured slowing demand with limited growth, partially because of such factors as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and increased use of tariffs. Traditional tactics for addressing performance, like procurement optimization, can no longer fully bridge the cost gap. This has left a number of companies with limited room for incremental gains. Consequently, more firms are optimizing at the system level and adopting integrated approaches that address the full production system. This requires tighter coordination across operations, procurement, energy and analytics -- an approach known as "site sprints." Companies that adopt this model have been able to unlock cost reductions while building capabilities for sustained performance improvement. One unnamed global pulp and paper company that adopted this approach registered cost savings at individual mills up to 20 percent.

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