By Mark Rushton, Editor, PPI magazine, Graeme Rodden, Executive Editor, PPI magazine, Annie Zhu, Features Editor, PPI magazine, and Rhiannon James-Van Beuningen, Senior Vice President, Media Products, RISI
BRUSSELS,
July 29, 2009
(RISI) -
1. Jose Luciano Penido, Votorantim Celulose e Papel (VCP)
There’s good reason why this man was chosen RISI’s Latin American CEO of the Year for the second consecutive time in 2008. Criteria include vision, leadership and strategic vision, qualities Penido has inabundance. The latest accomplishment was the merger with Aracruz, which recently passed European competition laws. The $1.1 billion merger has created the world’s largest market pulp producer with capacity of 5.7 milliontonnes/yr. Then, on March 30, VCP’s newest pulp mill, Tres Lagoas, started up a month ahead of schedule, shipping its first pulp in April. The 1.3-million tonne/yr mill was producing 3,000 tonnes/day in April and is due to reach design capacity in 2010.
2. Chen Hongguo, Shandong Chenming Paper
Recently voted as RISI's Asian CEO of the Year, for the second year in a row, Chen Hongguo heads up Shandong Chenming Paper, a leading Asian producer operating 10 subsidiaries, with a capacity of more than four million tonnes of a variety of paper and board grades.
The main reasons behind Chen Hongguo's nominations include the company's financial performance (which analysts believe has been strong) and also his strategy (expanding into pulp production was a common theme).
The company has invested in new pulp and paper facilities over the past few years and recently unveiled plans to install a new 450,000-tonne/yr fine paper machine at a greenfield mill in Zhanjiang city,Guangdong province, China. The company also plans to build a 700,000-tonne/yr bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp line at the Zhanjiang site. This project was postponed last year amid world economy uncertainty but now is under negotiation again with suppliers. In addition, the company has just unveiled plans to invest in three new machines, spanning fine paper, tissue and linerboard, for installation at its Shouguang mill in Shandong province, China.
"We have adjusted our development strategy in time and focused on enhancing our capability of independent innovation and optimizing the product structure to actively meet the challenge in 2008, especially after the outbreak of the international financial crisis. So our company hasmaintained stable development in 2008. The annual turnover and profit for theyear reached RMB 15.53 billion ($ 2.27 billion) and RMB 1.56 billion ($230million), up 2.41% and 4.43% accordingly compared to the previous year," says Chen at a recent interview with PPI magazine.
3. John V. Faraci, International Paper
Number 2 on the 2008 RISI Top 50 Power List, Faraci is the chairman and CEO of International Paper (IP), a role he has mastered since November 2003. He has helped transform IP into the industry leader in containerboard. IP has also demonstrated a new model for managing supply in this horrible downturn, the worst for the industry in decades. Faraci has helped IP turn away from the wood basket "southern mentality" of old into the global world of the future with ventures in China and Brazil. The company has always been "a player" in the European packaging scene.The mover on the Ilim (Russia) deal, Faraci knows that one way to China is through Russia and IP's mills send pulp to northern and eastern China.
4. A.J. Devanesan, APRIL
Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL) is another Asian powerhouse, which although physically huge in terms of operations, also likes to maintain a below-the-radar profile. The president of the company, AJ Devanesan, has already had an impressive 24-year career, 13 of them top level positions at companies such as RMG International and itsaffiliates, Indorayon and PEC-Tech.
In late 2008, major Indonesian pulp producers were taking market-related downtime on bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp lines at thei rmills, due to extremely weak demand, and APRIL was no exception. APRIL stopped one of the two BHK pulp lines at its Kerinci facility in Sumatra in October, 2008. Two months later, APRIL laid off some workers at its Kerinci complex in Riau province, on the island of Sumatra, to reduce costs. The move came as the company slowed production at the facility, on the back of sluggish demand and a woodchip shortage.
However, in China, APRIL is making progress with a project to build a one million-tonne/yr pulp line at its plant in Rizhao city, Shandong province. Construction work for the scheme started in mid-2008. Trial runs on the new bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp line are scheduled for the second quarter of 2010. The timing of the commercial production will depend on the market.
5. José Honório, Portucel Soporcel Group
The Portucel Soporcel CEO makes our power list not just because the company ranks as one of the largest producers in Europe, but also because of a very rare happening - a new machine startup on the European mainland this year. The announcement of the new 500,000-tonne/yr machine, which is being built currently at Setúbal, Portugal, first came in 2002, and startup is destined for August this year. But the general consensus is that it is going to have a huge, but negative, impact on the already over capacitated marketplace. Portucel Soporcel Group has also been in the news lately for its signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Mozambique for the creation of a massive integrated pulp and paper facility in the African country.
6. Dr Wolfgang Palm, Palm Paper
Bravely bucking all the trends, Palm Paper will open its 400,000-tonne/yr newsprint facility in September of this year in Norfolk, UK. Wolfgang Palm is the fourth generation of his family to run Palm Paper. When asked recently about how the global recession will affect the new project, Palm commented: "The King's Lynn (UK) project will go right on schedule, exactly as we planned it from the beginning. The financing is totally safe. The only problem would be if a bank goes bankrupt but we have chosen very strong banks and they are doing very well."
7. R.R. Vederah, BILT
Rajeev Ranjan Vederah is managing director of Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), India's largest paper manufacturer and is also a major player in the paper industry in Asia. Early this year, BILT received the Dun& Bradstreet - Rolta Corporate Awards 2008. BILT was named top Indian company in the paper sector. Vederah has been with BILT for more than 25 years where he has contributed significantly to its turnaround and growth. Currently, he is driving the overall business plan and is responsible for the company's top-line and bottom-line volume and growth. Along with managing its business operations. Vederah is also involved in the development of BILT's organization and business strategy towards a mandate to achieve the company's aggressive growth plans. He is also the key driver of new technology and quality initiatives aimed at taking BILT into the South Asian region.
The group's expansion plans are moving on as normal. In March 2008, Ballarpur Industries (BILT) started commercial production on a new coated woodfree paper machine with a capacity of 190,000 tonnes/yr at its Bhigwan mill in Pune city, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Elsewhere, BILT's expansion of its Ballarshah facility, also located in Maharashtra State, included a new uncoated woodfree paper machine with a capacity of 185,000tonnes/yr.
For the future market in India, Vederah is full of confidence. "Overall paper consumption in India has reached 9 million tonnes, making India an interesting market," said Vederah at RISI's annual Asian Pulp and Paper Outlook Conference in June this year.
8. Teguh Ganda Wijaya, APP
Widjaja emigrated from China to Indonesia and started selling biscuits at age 17. Despite reportedly lacking a formal education, he founded one of Indonesia's biggest conglomerates Sinar Mas Group, the parent company of Asia Pulp & Paper, and started Bank International Indonesia. He was ranked by Forbes as Indonesia's third richest man with a personal fortune of $2.8 billion in 2008.
APP shelved most of its expansion plans in China late last year, as the global economic downturn hit the country. In addition, the group has taken downtime on its pulp lines in Indonesia, with an aim to reduce supplies due to sluggish demand and falling prices. However, this year APP China has resumed construction work for a new 1-million-tonne/yr fine papermachine, PM 2, at its mill on the Chinese island of Hainan.
For the future, APP has defined one of its strategies for 2009 is to expand its share of the Brazilian paper market in which it has operated since arriving in Brazil in 2007.
A company that has an incredible and rapid rise the like of APP is bound to attract some criticism and it is no stranger to controversy, especially over its fiber supply which is monitored, analysed and scrutinised on an almost daily basis by every environmental group in the region and beyond. However, APP has become more active in responding to critics from various parties since last year. One example is the "Paper Contract" that APP China announced in June 2008, with an aim to promote sustainable forestry, clean production and corporate social responsibility.
9. Duncan Pollard, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
The NGOs are becoming increasingly important in the world of pulp and paper, and the WWF is probably the most high profile of the lot. Duncan Pollard, Director of Conservation Practice and Policy is a regular attendee at events around the world, and is extremely vocal when it comes to concerns over environmental issues. However, Pollard is one of those rare individuals who can combine industry knowledge and even show empathy with the pulp and paper industry, he was involved with the startup of the Santa Fe pulpmill in Chile, as well as in charge of a UPM plantation in Uruguay. Thereby, Pollard carries important weight in one of the most subscribed to environmental organizations.
10. Cheung Yan, Nine Dragons Paper
Here's a woman who literally made money from trash. In 1985, the daughter of a military man and eldest of eight children started a modest recovered paper trading company in Hong Kong with just $4,000 in savings. In 1990, she co-founded America Chung Nam, with her husband, Ming Chung Liu, the largest exporter of recovered paper from the US and leading exporter in Europe and Asia. She is also the head of packaging giant Nine Dragons Paper(Holdings), which she co-founded in 1995.
Cheung was ranked the wealthiest person in China in 2007 with an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine, making her richer than Oprah Winfrey and JK Rowling. However, her net worth dropped to $265 million last year, though, reported the magazine, amid a plunge in the stock markets.
Established in 1995, it's no secret that Nine Dragons has rapidly expanded to become a leading player in the packaging arena, adding so many machines in recent years. The group's packaging/paperboard total design production capacity has now reached 7.85 million tonnes/yr, according to the company's official website.
Nine Dragons fast investment plans were put on hold in 2008 amid world uncertainty stemming from the global economic downturn and also the slowdown of China's exports.
Signs show that China's economy and exports has bottomed out and has started to improve and we are waiting and see this powerful lady's next move, whatever it may be.
RISI Power List 2009: Introduction
RISI Power List 2009: 11-20
RISI Power List 2009: 21-30
RISI Power List 2009: 31-40
RISI Power List 2009: 41-50
