The future of the paper and packaging industry will be determined on the one hand by advertising, and on the other by developments in digital printing and changes in packaging materials markets. Digital home printing may also shape the future of the printing papers trade and technical services.

About EUR 50 billion worth of reading materials (printing, writing and office papers) and EUR 84 billion worth of packaging are annually purchased in the world. Only in the Nordic countries is more money spent on reading materials than packaging. Demand for packaging is expected to grow, especially in developing countries such as China, due to the renewal of food industry technology and changes in the consumption habits of the growing middle-class.

Due to the fact that there are many places in the world where raw materials can be harvested and used more cheaply than in the Nordic countries or their neighbours, Finnish domestic paper and board mills can improve, or maintain, their competitiveness only by exploiting information, knowledge and innovations.

Competitive advantage from cross-sector co-operation

The competitiveness of the forest cluster, Finland's versatile and vibrant concentration of knowledge and skills, requires that expertise be distilled and networked between different sectors of technology. In terms of forest industry technology, cross-sector co-operation is increasingly more important than co-operation within the forest industry. In particular, networking between the forest, communications, chemical and foodstuffs sectors has produced good results and will continue to open up new vistas. The most exciting opportunities lie in cross-sector research and development between the forest industry and the telecommunications sector.

Finnish companies in the IT business have become global leaders through their know-how and technical insights. In the forest industry, this development cycle has taken a longer time. Earlier, one might say, Finnish forest companies followed the well-worn paths marked out by others. Technical solutions and product ideas were for the most part borrowed. Today, the Finnish IT sector and the forest industry are both in the same fast boat, at the very head of global development.

Intelligence is the buzz word

The buzz words for Finnish paper and IT applications are information and intelligence. The intelligence property is not a characteristic or exclusive right only of information technology and the telecommunications sector. The latest information technology has been used in forest industry process control for a long time. Now it is rapidly being embedded in the products themselves.

As a result, new properties are continuously being included in printing and packaging products. Smart paper, packaging, and sticker are today a combination of raw materials plus the latest technology from different sectors.

The intelligent sticker - a leap in technology

The smart sticker contains a lot of information that is easy to change and reprogram when necessary. This will revolutionise the way logistical chains work and how we do our shopping. Already today it is possible that we will be able to push our shopping carts through a suitable loop, triggering the transfer of information about our purchases to the shop's information system, which will then immediately produce a bill.

In addition, smart labels can be used for many functions from production to logistical systems in industry, transportation, wholesaling, postal and courier services, rental services, product protection and even the prevention of copying and forgeries. Many other breakthroughs are also to be expected.

The challenge of digital printing

The future of forest industry products will also be shaped by the development of digital printing. The forest industry has closely followed the demands of new printing technology on the properties of its products. The use of digital technology in producing printed products requires the production of a range of paper grades that is at least as extensive as that required by traditional printing.

On the other hand, the networking of machine resources is gradually leading to the concept of distributed printing. The target environments can be, for example, schools, libraries, public transport stations and information kiosks and cafés. On the other hand, totally distributed printing could mean the home printing of information from information networks or transferred by means of broadcast communications systems. These developments require paper that is usable in machines based on different technologies.

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>> Better paper from aspen (15.4.2002)

>> www.forestindustries.fi

Source: Stora Enso