“We also want to grow in the paper market”“ - Interview with Dr. Joachim Schönbeck, Andritz Group
24 June 2016 The Austrian technology group Andritz has a staff of about 24,500 around the world and posted sales amounting to nearly 6.4 billion euros last year – an all-time high in the more than 160-year history of the company. The paper and pulp segment is also growing. Dr. Joachim Schönbeck is a member of the Executive Board with responsibility for “Pulp & Paper - Capital Systems“. In the following interview, he describes the development of this business unit, explaining that the company can offer whole plants from the wood yard to the finished paper from one source thanks to further acquisitions, that the market rewards the enormous progress with regard to the efficient use of resources and energy, and that the clear focus on plants for the production of pulp, packaging and hygiene papers is very helpful.
Dr. Schönbeck, what is the focus of your Pulp & Paper business unit?
Schönbeck: Here, the emphasis is totally on pulp and paper plants. We have selectively strengthened our position along the value chain of our customers. On the one hand, in order to be able to offer complete plants from one source. On the other hand, in order to acquire comprehensive know-how for the optimisation of the total process. This strategy has brought Andritz annual growth rates of 14 percent for more than ten years. The acquisitions and the organic growth have contributed equally. Many of the acquired companies have blossomed in our group structure and some of them succeeded substantially in increasing their business volume.
Your strong growth surprises. Don’t you feel some of the problems in the paper market?
Schönbeck: The difficulties in the paper sector do not affect us so much because we do not offer production technology for graphic papers. On the other hand, we are strong in the paper and board for hygiene and packaging sectors are growing like the pulp market on a global basis. In the packaging paper sector, we are expanding our business.
The use of energy and resources in pulp and paper production is huge. What are the approaches used by Andritz to improve that?
Schönbeck: The pulp industry has fundamentally changed in recent years, especially as regards the use of residual materials and energy consumption. A modern pulp factory produces double the amount of energy that it uses – hence feeds energy into the grid. Back in the 1970s, energy-containing black liquor was still discharged into rivers. As a matter of course, it is now used as a source of energy.
Is this development driven by legal requirements or customers´ wishes?
Schönbeck: They are both of significance. Due to stricter environmental requirements, the emissions of dust, sulphur, nitrogen or phosphor have decreased by 60 to 90 percent since 1992. At the same time, the amount of waste has decreased by more than 90 percent because all residual materials are reused or used as an energy source. This development has been accelerated by increasing energy and raw material prices. Energy efficiency is a strong selling point nowadays. Pulp and paper manufacturers are faced with competition and they pay very close attention to the running cost of a plant when making investments.
Will the efficiency potentials soon be fully exhaused?
Schönbeck: No, they will not. To date we have used those parts of wood that are not turned into pulp and paper only as an energy source. Meanwhile, however, we are working on their utilisation as materials. Above all lignin is offering great potential – be it for the production of insulating material, packaging material or adhesives, or be it for the production of ethanol. The rest, after it has been used, can still be incinerated. As regards wood, it is always reasonable to use it as long and, thanks to recycling, as often as possible before finally incinerating it.
How high is your investment quota for research and development?
Schönbeck: Approximately 2 to 3 percent of total sales; in plant manufacturing, however, the situation is in fact such that we prepare the lion`s share of the innovations in projects and often only implement them as prototypes with the customers. The step from the laboratory scale to the industrial plant is too big. Our development engineers experiment with types of wood, optimise the chemical and mechanical processes for a higher yield of high-quality fibres with decreasing energy and water consumption. Furthermore, autonomous factories are an important subject for our customers – in order to prevent failures caused by improper operation. Besides comprehensive sensor-driven monitoring of the plant, this also requires intelligent analyses that deliver recommendations for actions at an early stage if parameters within the process shift. In future, process control could well be transferred to the IT completely in order to implement a fully autonomous process management. We have already proceeded very far on our way to Industrie 4.0, and every day we gather new findings about how our customers can analyse and use the collected data even better. In principle, all this is nothing new, but the huge progress in data processing and networking now enables to fulfil previous visions. Real-time communication allows us to remote-control plants in Brazil from Graz. Moreover: By means of simulation, we can now validate the total control and automation software of a plant before it is even built. This tremendously helps to ensure quality control and on-time delivery.
Catchword: Paper quality. Does the higher and higher quality awareness in the packaging market change the demands set on board and paper?
Schönbeck: Yes, it does. Packaging papers must convince by technical properties like high tensile strength and tear strength as well as their very homogeneous composition that makes them perfect surfaces for printing. We consistently improve our plant technology in order to satisfy the rising requirements.
Last question. Where do you see your Pulp & Paper business unit in the year 2030?
Schönbeck: I strongly believe that we will expand our leading role in the pulp sector still further and by then will also have gained market shares in the paper segment. The global packaging market is growing, and increasing hygiene awareness as well as the continuously growing middle class in development countries and newly industrialised countries will lead to higher demands. We will help our customers with processes that are more efficient in the use of energy and resources in order to cover this demand in an environmentally friendly way. In short: Our positive development will continue.
