Producer
International Paper Company
International Paper Company (Memphis TN; NYSE: IP; ~$19B revenue; world's largest paper and packaging company by revenue) acquired Weyerhaeuser Company's Cellulose Specialties business (including fluff pulp mills in Washington state and the Gulf South) in 2016 for $2.2 billion — the largest single acquisition in International Paper's history. The acquisition made IP the world's largest fluff pulp producer. IP's cellulose specialties (now called IP Cellulose Specialties) produces specialty fluff pulp from mills in Savannah GA, Georgetown SC, and Riegelwood NC. IP's fluff pulp supplies Procter & Gamble's Pampers, Kimberly-Clark's Huggies, and Unicharm's Mamy Poko globally. International Paper is simultaneously the world's largest producer of corrugated packaging (cardboard boxes) and a dominant producer of diaper absorbent fiber — two of the most-used single-use materials in the consumer products economy.
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Industrial Packaging (Corrugated)
60%Cellulose Fibers (Fluff Pulp)
30%Global Cellulose Fibers (Export)
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Did you know2024
International Paper is simultaneously the world's largest producer of corrugated cardboard packaging (the boxes that deliver Amazon and Walmart.com orders) and the world's largest producer of fluff pulp (the absorbent fiber core inside Procter & Gamble Pampers and Kimberly-Clark Huggies). The pine tree in a Georgia or South Carolina plantation can become either the corrugated box of your online delivery OR the cellulose fiber absorbing an infant's moisture — depending on which IP mill processes it. These two products — cardboard boxes and diaper absorbent fiber — are among the most-produced single-use materials in the consumer economy, and they both route through the same Memphis-headquartered, NYSE-listed company. IP's 2016 acquisition of Weyerhaeuser's fluff pulp operations made a cardboard box company into the dominant fluff pulp supplier to the global baby care industry — a supply chain concentration that Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark have been trying to diversify away from through Brazilian and European pulp sourcing.
International Paper Company ↗Origin2023
International Paper Company was incorporated in Albany, New York in 1898 through the consolidation of 17 northeastern paper mills — one of the US's earliest major horizontal consolidations, driven by overcapacity and price wars in the newsprint market. IP grew through 125 years of acquisitions to become the world's largest paper and packaging company. The transformation from newsprint to corrugated packaging and fluff pulp reflects the 20th-century economic evolution: newspaper print demand collapsed (digital substitution), while e-commerce drove corrugated packaging demand to all-time highs and global diaper adoption drove fluff pulp demand. IP's 2021 spin-off of printing/writing paper operations as Sylvamo allowed IP to focus on packaging and fluff pulp — the two growing segments in an otherwise declining paper industry.
International Paper Company ↗