The Navigator Company (formerly known as Portucel Soporcel Group) is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

pulp and paper company. The Navigator Company has a productive capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of paper and 1.4 million tonnes of pulp, with 1,380 km² of forest, and an annual turnover of over €1.5 billion (US$1.9 billion). The company uses

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

as the prime raw material for the production of

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

and fine

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

and

writing paper Printing and writing papers are paper grades used for newspapers, magazines, catalogs, books, notebooks, commercial printing, business forms, stationeries, copying and digital printing. About 1/3 of the total pulp and paper marked (in 2000) is prin ...

. Portucel is Europe's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus

kraft pulp Kraft paper or kraft is paper or paperboard (cardboard) produced from chemical pulp produced in the kraft process. Sack kraft paper (or just sack paper) is a porous kraft paper with high elasticity and high tear resistance, designed for packag ...

. It is also one of the five largest

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an producers of uncoated wood-free paper. Publicly traded on

Euronext Lisbon Euronext Lisbon is a stock exchange in Lisbon, Portugal. It is part of Euronext pan-European exchange. Euronext Lisbon trades equities, public and private bonds, participation bonds, warrants, corporate warrants, investment trust units, and exc ...

, Portucel is controlled by the industrial conglomerate Semapa which owns almost 77% of its shares. As part of the significant investment in the expansion and internationalization of its production activities, the “Portucel Soporcel Group” has taken the decision to change its corporate brand to “The Navigator Company”.

History

The company has its origins in the early 1950s, when the paper mill of

Cacia Cacia is a civil parish in the municipality of Aveiro. The population in 2011 was 7,354, in an area of 35.75 km². History There are no clear indications of the first peoples to inhabit the region; João Gaspar suggests that they could have ...

Baixo Vouga Baixo Vouga () is a former Portuguese subregion integrated in the Centro Region. It was abolished at the January 2015 NUTS 3 revision.Carnation Revolution in 1974, the Portuguese paper industry was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

and became highly

subsidized A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

by State funds. Portucel Soporcel remained well after the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the company to Semapa in 2004, as one of the largest beneficiaries of state business grants and incentives due to its strategic interest for both Portugal's exportation and local

economies.

Portucel

Portucel began operations at the Cacia mill in 1953 producing raw pine pulp, and became a pioneer worldwide in 1957 when it introduced sulphate bleached eucalyptus pulp, at the kraft process, into its production. In 1967, at the Setúbal mill, Inapa began its operations in a production unit integrated with Portucel, transforming pulp into paper that was sold throughout Europe. Portucel bought Papéis Inapa in 2000, thus creating a strategic partnership of great importance in initiating the restructuring process of the pulp and the paper sector in Portugal. With the

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

of Soporcel in 2001, Portucel rebranded itself the Portucel Soporcel Group.

Soporcel

The Soporcel factory in

Figueira da Foz Figueira da Foz (), also known as Figueira for short, is a city and a municipality in the Coimbra District, in Portugal. Practically at the midpoint of the Iberian Peninsula's Atlantic coast, it is located at the mouth of the Mondego River, west ...

, Portugal, was initially intended to be built in the Portuguese territory of

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, by then an overseas province of Portugal. Due to the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, the project which included both

forestation Forestation is either growing existing forests ( proforestation) or establishing forest growth on areas that either had forest or lacked it naturally. In the first case, the process is called reforestation, or reafforestation while the second is c ...

and construction of industrial facilities in Angola, was delayed and changed. The factory would be installed some years later, in Portugal. Although it began operations in 1984 with the inauguration of the mill at Figueira da Foz, Soporcel had been constituted five years earlier. The first paper machine (PM I) began working in the year 1991, and currently has a capacity of 350,000 tonnes/year. The installation of the second paper machine (PM II – 425,000 tonnes/year), representing the most advanced technology in the sector, reinforced the position held by the Figueira da Foz mill in the European segment of the uncoated woodfree paper market. Soporcel was acquired by Portucel in 2001, creating the Portucel Soporcel Group.

Operations

The group's production structure is based at three mills, situated at

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

, and

. The brand Navigator is produced by the group. The Portucel Soporcel Group is responsible for woodland assets in Portugal, totaling approximately 120 thousand hectares. This land is managed in accordance with the principles set out in the group's Forestry Policy. The eucalyptus, more specifically the ''

Eucalyptus globulus ''Eucalyptus globulus'', commonly known as southern blue gum or blue gum, is a species of tall, evergreen tree endemic to southeastern Australia. This ''Eucalyptus'' species has mostly smooth bark, juvenile leaves that are whitish and waxy on ...

'' species, which is considered at world level to provide the ideal fibre for the production of high-quality papers, occupies 74% of this area. Due to this role, it is a well known wine, honey, seeds and specific tree (besides

which is its main

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

) producer. It has a well-equipped private fire department to prevent fires within its forests. Besides its woodland assets and plants in Portugal, Portucel has developing since 2010 forestation and industrial projects abroad. It studied extensive forestry and industrial investments in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, but chose

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

for the effect.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Navigator Company, The Pulp and paper companies of Portugal Companies established in 2001 2001 establishments in Portugal Setúbal District