b'GLOBAL INDUSTRY TRENDSCOVID-19 poised to structurally alter tissue & towel sectorBy Bruce Janda, Senior ConsultantBusiness Intelligence, Fisher InternationalThe COVID-19 pandemic has touched all parts of the global forest supply chain and has brought new visibility into the pulp & paper industry (P&P) in particular. In North America and Europe, the P&P sector has been front-page news since the widespread run on toilet paper that took place from March through June.Demonstrating the nimble nature of the P&P sector, many mills added shifts and converted machines to meet the surge in demand for household tissue and towel products, and consumers seem to have put a newfound premium on personal hygiene that will likely impact production capacity going forward. Now that the initial hoarding activity seem to be over, were able to analyse how recent consumer habitsFigure 1. have impacted the tissue and towel industry and look ahead at potentialin North America, where consumerstotal 58 percent. This is the total bath developments that might take shapehave traditionally used about one- tissue volume that the supply chain is in the coming months. third of their tissue away from homeset to deliver in 2020.because they are at work, shopping, RECENT HISTORY commuting, etc. Toilet tissue is aThe first big shift came as producers As frantic consumers well remember,staple in North America but whenof large, industrial-sized rolls of toilet toilet paper became one of thethe P&Pstate-enforced lockdowns took effectpaper for commercial applications worlds hottest commodities just asector hasin April, it caused a significant changesuch as hotel chains and office few short months ago; however, withbeen front- to the existing supply chain. buildings began selling their products a few exceptions, we have largelypage newsto grocers and retail outfits to create seen the supply chain stabilise insince theFigure 1 shows the global tissuemore inventory on the shelves. Due most regions.widespreadproduct mix for consumer,to the massive increase in demand Interestingly, toilet paper is one ofrun on toiletcommercial, and industrial tissueduring the early stages of the those products that has a historypaper thatproducts. Global consumer bathlockdown, we saw more of this trend of being hoarded when there aretook placeaccounts for 51 percent of the totalbecause the supply gap was so large. rumbling and rumors of a potentialfrom Marchcapacity. Commercial bath provides shortage. This is especially the casethrough June an additional 7 percent capacity toSome commercial bath tissue is WORLD PULP&PAPER 9'