Bleached & unbleached softwood pulp

Known also as Northern Bleached Softwood Pulp (NBSK), it is mainly known for its strength and often used as reinforcement fibres for paper production. It is also used as a raw material for kraft and in tissue paper. Useful facts about various kinds of NBSK:

• British Columbia: mainly made from Lodgepole Pine, with a large percentage of White Spruce. Redcedar, douglas fir, hemlock, and larch make up a smaller portion of the chip furnish. It is known for having longer fiber lengths and larger fiber diameter than anywhere else in the world due to very long growing season and mild climate.
• Siberia: Made from pine, spruce and European larch and tends to be shorter and thinner than other NBSK pulps due to the short growing season. The larch makes up about 15% of the wood furnish and gives a rather coarse fiber that makes Siberian NBSK less desirable as reinforcement pulp.
• New Zealand, Brazil and Chile Radiata pine: It is the only single species of plantation from. It has good brightness and cleanliness and suitable for printing and writing papers.
• Scandinavia: It is the only kind made from scots pine and Norway spruce in the normal mix 7:3. The mix might vary much with the season as the Norway spruce grows on wetter lands that is easier accessed in the winter when the ground is frozen.