Traditional hygiene habits, such as the use of water in lndia, are restricting tissue use as well.

Tissue is one of the few global products with relatively limited competition from other products or materials in its basic use as toilet paper. In Japan, high-tech toilets based on water and/or air jetting with several additional functions,including automatic lid opening,music, ozone deodorant systems and urinalysis, seem to have had some negative impact on toilet tissue consumption. In towelling, air- blowing dryers and textile wiping systems are clear competitors to paper towels. In napkins, air-laid tissue and textile napkins compete with paper napkins. And perhaps the most important effect has been in baby diapers, where new designs with super-absorbents have effectively replaced the traditional tissue carrier sheet in diaper constructions, although tissue has again made some inroads in high-quality products due to its ability to give more stiffness and stability to the product.

But with average per capita consumption of tissue at just above 5kg per person now, there is still a lot of potential in many regions.

While it is hard to believe that any other region would reach the level of North America at 25kg or more of tissue use per person, 10kg on average would double global tissue consumption, putting it close to 80m tonnes. This is fully possible, but will take so long that 1 personally will most likely not see it during my lifetime. Increases in the global population, if it continues to grow at almost 1.0% per year,will raise tissue consumption in the most advanced regions,such as North America, as well Per region, we see the most interesting potential in Asia (excluding Japan),Latin America and parts of Africa.China has recently been the main driver for global tissue consumption. and with its average per capita consumption at 6.3kg there is still a lot of untapped potential there. In several countries in Asia Far East, tissue has started to pick up. even in India, but the starting level is so low that it will take time before consumption in this region will have more global importance. Latin America seems to be following western consumption patterns and its growth prospects are good.Even in Africa, we have seen tissue consumption expand in a few countries in recent years.

I am rather confident that global tissue consumption will continue on its sound growth track, but the average annual growth rate will likely see a gradual slowing from its present 3.5-3.7% annual pace.

Our current ten-year forecast ends at a level of 50m tonnes of tissue consumption, and there is no reason to think this will not take place. It can be concluded that the future outlook for tissue is good if demand prospects continue to be good. However, this does not mean tissue is an easy business to enter.

Many companies have seen the attractiveness of the segment and investments have followed, resulting in a keen competition between suppliers in nearly every corner of the globe.