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Svenska Cellulosa AB (SCA,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
: ''Swedish Cellulose Ltd.'') is a
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
forest industry The wood industry or timber industry (sometimes lumber industry -- when referring mainly to sawed boards) is the industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and wood products (e.g. furnitu ...
company with headquarters in
Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History Th ...
. SCA is the largest
private forest A private forest (also private woodland or private wood) is a forest that is not owned by municipal authorities (such as a corporate forest), church authorities or the state (e.g. a state forest or national forest). It can refer to woodland owned by ...
owner in Europe. It owns 2.6 million hectares of forest in northern Sweden, amounting to six per cent of Sweden’s surface area and as big as the size of
North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
. The company also owns forests in Estonia and Latvia. SCA produces wood-based products, such as pulp, packaging paper and kraftliner. The company’s sawmills,
wood processing Wood processing is an engineering discipline in the wood industry comprising the production of forest products, such as pulp and paper, construction materials, and tall oil. Paper engineering is a subfield of wood processing. The major wood pro ...
units and planing mills produce spruce and pine wood products. The company leases land to wind farm operators and produces solid and liquid biofuels from its by-products. In 2022, SCA’s business units included Containerboard, Forest, Pulp, Renewable Energy and Wood. It has approximately 3,600 employees and a turnover of approximately SEK 18.8 billion (€1.8 billion). The company is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in Stockholm, Sweden.
Essity Essity AB is a global hygiene and health company, with its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. The products portfolio contains one-use products such as tissue paper, baby diapers, feminine care (menstruation pads etc.), incontinence products, ...
, a tissue paper company, was spun off from SCA in 2017 and is now a listed company on the Nasdaq stock exchange in Stockholm, Sweden.


History


1929–1999

SCA was established in November 1929, when Swedish investor
Ivar Kreuger Ivar Kreuger (; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. B ...
merged ten Swedish forestry companies. Between them the companies employed 6,500 people and owned forests, sawmills, pulp mills, machine shops and power plants. After Kreuger’s death in 1932, control of the company passed to
Handelsbanken Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a Swedish bank providing banking services including traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including insurance. Handelsbanken is one of the major banks in Sweden ...
. SCA was listed on the
Stockholm stock exchange Nasdaq Stockholm, formerly known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange ( sv, Stockholmsbörsen), is a stock exchange located in Frihamnen, Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1863, it has become the primary securities exchange of the Nordic countries. As o ...
in 1950. Axel Enström was the
managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
from 1950 to 1960 and chairman of the board from 1960 to 1965. SCA acquired Swedish hygiene products
Mölnlycke Mölnlycke is a small town nearby Greater Gothenburg, a locality and the seat of Härryda Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 17,499 inhabitants in 2019. The urban area stretches over two municipalities. Mölndal Municipality ...
in 1975. In the 1980s, SCA acquired companies in France, Italy and Austria, including Laakirchen, a producer of uncoated printing paper. In June 1990, SCA acquired Reedpack, a British packaging and paper company. In December 1990, SCA, by now Sweden’s second largest forestry company, acquired a stake in Sweden’s third largest forestry company, MoDo, which produced around half a million tonnes of fine paper annually. SCA produced about one million tonnes of different grades of paperboard per year. In 1995, SCA became the largest forest industry group in Europe when it acquired 75% of the German company Papierwerke Waldhof-Aschaffenburg AG (PWA), which produced tissue paper and packaging board like SCA. Prior to the transaction, SCA had sold its power plant and its MoDo shareholding. Mölnlycke accounted for half of the company’s turnover, with one third coming from packaging and the remainder from graphic papers. The company built a second Light Weight Coated machine at the Ortviken mill. Mondi of South Africa and SCA built a newsprint machine based on recycled fibre at Aylesford in the UK. In 1998, SCA acquired corrugated board producer Rexam in the UK. In 1999, SCA acquired packaging company Nicolet of France.


2000–2016

In May 2000, Metsä-Serla and SCA negotiated a share swap in which SCA would acquire a majority stake in
Metsä Tissue Metsä Tissue is a Finland, Finnish company headquartered in Espoo that manufactures tissue papers and greaseproof papers. Metsä Tissue sells its products under brands Lambi, Serla, Mola, Tento, Katrin and SAGA. In Sweden, they have paper mills i ...
, a tissue paper producer. Metsä-Serla acquired a stake in Modo Paper, which was co-owned by SCA and Holmen. The transaction was completed in June 2000. However, the EU banned the sale of Metsä Tissue in January 2001, on the basis that the combined market share of SCA and Metsä Tissue in the Nordic countries would have become too large. SCA acquired Tuscarora, a company in the United States that manufactured tissue paper and packaging. In February 2002, SCA acquired Italian tissue company Cartoinvest, and later in the year British tissue company Benedetti Paper Division. In March 2004, SCA acquired the tissue paper businesses of
Carter Holt Harvey __NOTOC__ Carter Holt Harvey Limited is a privately-owned New Zealand-based company controlled by Rank Group Limited, the corporate vehicle of the country's richest man, Graeme Hart. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, the company has three main div ...
in New Zealand and half of their joint venture Sancella. In 2005, SCA had 50,000 employees in 50 countries. Due to fierce competition, it laid off 3,600 employees working on packaging and hygiene products in Europe. The Danish carton board plant was shut down and production was moved to Eastern Europe. In March 2007, SCA acquired the European tissue paper business of US-based
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
. In September, SCA and Norwegian energy company Statkraft announced the construction of seven wind farms in northern Sweden. The farms were designed to produce 2,800GWh of electricity a year, equivalent to approximately 2% of Sweden’s total electricity demand. Of this amount, 500GWh was allocated to SCA. In December 2007, SCA announced that it would reduce its production activities in Sweden the following year due to increasing raw material and energy prices and overcapacity. SCA delisted from the
London stock exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
in 2008. SCA increased its ownership in Chinese tissue company Vinda. In 2011, Norges Bank bought a stake of more than 5% in SCA. In July 2012, the EU approved a deal in which SCA acquired the European operations of tissue paper company
Georgia-Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and r ...
. It employed 4,700 people in seven countries. SCA divested its packaging operations – excluding the two kraftliner mills in Sweden – to DS Smith. In November 2013, SCA announced that it would buy a majority stake of almost 60% in Chinese tissue paper company Vinda. In 2014, SCA was the most profitable forestry company in the Nordic countries. While other forestry companies were active in the wholesale market, its main customers were consumers. The company had 44,000 employees and sold its products in 100 countries. In early 2015, Sverker Martin-Löf, chairman of the board, and Jan Johansson, CEO, resigned following a row over the private use of SCA’s jet aircraft. Johansson and his family had used the company’s aircraft for private flights, including to Dubai, Verona and Nice. Magnus Groth succeeded him. The Swedish Anti-Corruption Authority was investigating whether there were any criminal offences involved. At the same time, Martin-Löf also resigned from the listed investment company Industrivärden, where he was CEO, and which was one of the largest owners of SCA. In August the company announced that it would double its annual pulp production in
Timrå Timrå () is a locality and the seat of Timrå Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden with 10,443 inhabitants in 2010. It is located about 13 km north of Sundsvall (a town with a metropolitan area of some 100,000 inhabitants), and c ...
to 900,000 tonnes. The investment amounted to approximately SEK 7.8 billion (€815m) and was expected to be one of the largest industrial investment in the history of
Norrland Norrland (, "Northland", originally ''Norrlanden'' or "the Northlands") is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administr ...
. In October, the company acquired the American tissue paper producer Wausau Paper. In November, SCA announced that it would sell its stake in Industrivärden. In summer 2016, insurance company Skandia and private equity firm Nordic Capital, among others, made a bid for SCA's forest operations and forests. In August, the company’s board announced plans to split the company into two. The
Tunadal Tunadal () is a locality situated in Sundsvall Municipality, Västernorrland County Västernorrland County ( sv, Västernorrlands län) is a county ('' län'') in the north of Sweden. It is bordered by the counties of Gävleborg, Jämtland, ...
sawmill was renovated. The
Obbola Obbola is a locality situated in Umeå Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden with 2,197 inhabitants in 2010. It is located close to the town of Holmsund. Obbola lies to the west of the mouth of Ume River at the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic ...
mill was piloting the production of liquid biofuel. SCA sold the rest of its Asian mills to Vinda, China's largest tissue paper manufacturer. In December, SCA acquired BSN Medical, a German company that manufactured products such as bandages and plasters. SCA was the fourth largest forestry company in the world. Hygiene products accounted for 86% of its €12.3 billion turnover. The company's brands included
TENA TENA is a Sweden, Swedish-based brand of Essity that specializes in products for adults with urinary incontinence, urinary or fecal incontinence, such as pads and diapers. TENA also produces a youth diaper brand for teenagers and larger childre ...
, Lotus, Libresse and Libero.


2017–

SCA and Essity became two separate companies in the summer of 2017. Tissue paper and health products, such as those produced by the
Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
paper mill, were transferred to Essity. SCA decided to focus on sawmills, pulp, board and paper mills, as well as forests and renewable energy production. The rationale for the split was that the synergies of the businesses had diminished over the years. SCA was mentioned on
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
's "Wiping away" report for its role in the Great Northern Forest and contribution to
global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. In March 2018, SCA announced that it would build a biorefinery in Timrå to produce transport fuel for cars and aircraft. The production was to use by-products from the Östrand pulp mill. In May, SCA announced that it would start co-operating with St1 in the production of renewable diesel. The pine oil-based fuel was to be produced at St1's refinery in
Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
. The modernisation of the Östrand pulp mill in Sundsvall doubled its capacity to 900,000 tonnes. In August 2020, SCA announced that it would withdraw from the printing paper business and cease paper production at Ortviken in Sundsvall. In the future, the company planned to focus on tissue paper and packaging materials. The company invested 140 million euros in the production of chemical thermoplastic pulp (CTMP). In autumn 2021, St1 and SCA announced their half-owned joint ventures called St1 Gothenburg Biorefinery Ab and SCA Östrand Biorefinery. The Gothenburg-based biorefinery would produce biofuel from pine oil and other renewable raw materials supplied by SCA.


Organisation


Businesses

In 2022, SCA is divided into five business units and supporting Sourcing & Logistics & Product Development units: *The Containerboard unit includes two paper mills that manufacture kraftliner. Kraftliner is used on the surface of corrugated board. *The Forest unit manages the company's forests in northern Sweden, Estonia and Latvia and buys wood from private forest owners *The Pulp unit includes pulp mills in Östrand and Ortviken *The Renewable Energy unit is focused on wind energy production on land owned by SCA. The other units produce bioenergy, such as solid and liquid biofuels, pellets and biochemicals, from by-products. *Wood includes sawmills, wood processing units and planing mills in Sweden. The unit mainly processes spruce and pine wood products, which are exported around the world


Owners

In December 2021, the company's largest shareholders were *Industrivärden *
Norges Bank Norges Bank / Noregs Bank is the central bank of Norway. The bank shall promote economic stability in Norway. Norges Bank also manages the Government Pension Fund of Norway and the bank’s own foreign exchange reserves. History The history of ...
*AMF Pension & Fonder *Handelsbanken Pensionsförsäkring *T. Rowe Price *BlackRock *Swedbank Robur Fonder *Vanguard *Insurance company
Skandia Skandia is a financial services corporation in Sweden. History Skandia started out as a Swedish insurance company in 1855. Today the brand operates in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Skandia also operates an internet bank called Skandiab ...


Products

SCA owns 2.6 million hectares of forest in Sweden, amounting to six per cent of Sweden’s surface area. The company also owns forests in
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
and
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. SCA produces wood-based products such as pulp, packaging paper and kraftliner. In addition, the company’s sawmills, wood processing units and planing mills produce spruce and pine wood products. The company owns wind turbines and produces solid and liquid biofuels from its by-products.


Criticism

Several complaints have been filed against SCA because of its repeated practice of
clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/ logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of fore ...
, where large areas of forests are cut down uniformly, which in
temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
and boreal climates leads to the release of large amounts of
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
stored in the soil due to its increased exposure to sunlight. As minutely documented by
Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
, SCA "clearcuts some of Sweden's last remaining
old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...
s, wiping away habitats of
threatened species Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...
and endangering the livelihood of indigenous communities".


Awards

*In 2014, SCA was named one of the world's most ethical companies for the seventh consecutive year by the
Ethisphere Institute The Ethisphere Institute is a for-profit company that defines and measures corporate ethical standards, recognizes companies that excel, and promotes best practices in corporate ethics. The company is located in Scottsdale, Arizona. The compan ...
.


See also

*
Stora Enso Stora Enso Oyj (from sv, Stora and fi, Enso ) is a manufacturer of pulp, paper and other forest products, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The majority of sales takes place in Europe, but there are also significant operations in Asia and S ...
*
UPM (company) UPM-Kymmene Oyj is a Finnish forest industry company. UPM-Kymmene was formed by the merger of Kymmene Corporation with Repola Oy and its subsidiary United Paper Mills Ltd in 1996. UPM consists of six business areas: UPM Fibres, UPM Energy, UPM Ra ...
* Holmen


References


External links

* {{Authority control Multinational companies headquartered in Sweden Pulp and paper companies of Sweden Personal care companies Swedish brands Holding companies established in 1929 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Manufacturing companies of Sweden Manufacturing companies established in 1929 Ivar Kreuger Swedish companies established in 1929 Sundsvall Companies based in Västernorrland County