A Global Look at Tissue & Towel Capacity Trends

While the USA has a high, if dwindling, level of
consolidation, a marked characteristic of Europe has been
its highly fragmented structure. Whereas three companies
have 60% market share in North America, five share just
50% of the European market.All‐in‐all, Europe has 142 companies making tissue and towel in 234 mills; clearly
numbers large enough to keep any one participant from
having significant market power.

European consumption and capacity have overall been flat
for some years, though growth has still been strong in
some of the small Eastern European nations which started
from a low base in 1990 following the break‐up of the
USSR. The expectation is that the overall market will
continue to be fairly flat (increasing a mere 0.5% over the
next eight years) for tissue and towel, with pockets of
modest growth anticipated in the Eastern European
countries.