Creating Global Markets : Seaborne Trade in Pulp and Paper Products Over the Last 400 Years

Abstract

The declining cost of sea transport has been a necessary condition for the growth of the global pulp and paper industry, especially in regions remote from economic centres. Thus, pulp and paper industries and international shipping have coevolved, especially since the 1960s, enabling producers to tap global markets and develop global production chains. The paper products trade flows, however, have changed a number of times over the last 400 years. This chapter describes and explains these developments and shows how the technological solutions in global shipping and strategic choices among the pulp and paper companies have been interdependent, especially since the 1960s.