Northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) is the paper industry's benchmark grade of
pulp. Market NBSK is produced mainly in Canada and the
Nordic countries. Some NBSK is also produced in north-western United States and in Russia. NBSK
futures
Futures may mean:
Finance
*Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract
*Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded
* ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine
Music
* ''Futures'' (album), a ...
are traded on the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) (often called "the Chicago Merc", or "the Merc") is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, an ...
.
Properties
This
pulp grade is very diverse. All NBSK pulps have long fibers and is often used as reinforcement pulp.
NBSK from
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...
is mainly from Lodgepole Pine, with a significant amount of White Spruce.
Redcedar,
douglas fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three v ...
,
hemlock, and
larch
Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...
make up a smaller portion of the chip furnish. NBSK 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.
NBSK from
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
is made from
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...
, spruce and
european larch
''Larix decidua'', the European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains as well as the Pyrenees, with disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland and southern Lithuania. It ...
and tend 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.
The only single species NBSK is of plantation
Radiata pine
''Pinus radiata'' ( syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California and Mexico ( Guadalupe Island and Cedros island). It is an evergreen conifer in the ...
from New Zealand,
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
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
. It has good brightness and cleanliness that is appreciated in
printing 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 pri ...
s.
NBSK from
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...
is only from
scots pine
''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orang ...
and
norway spruce
''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.
It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...
in the normal mix 7:3. The mix might vary much with the season as norway spruce grows on wetter lands that is easier accessed in the winter when the ground is frozen.
Applications
The most common use of NBSK is as reinforcement fibres when making
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distribu ...
or as raw material for
kraft paper
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 used in
tissue paper
Tissue paper or simply tissue is a lightweight paper or, light crêpe paper. Tissue can be made from recycled paper pulp on a paper machine.
Tissue paper is very versatile, and different kinds of tissue are made to best serve these purposes, w ...
.
See also
*
Southern bleached softwood kraft
References
External links
NBSK futures prices
Papermaking
Pulp and paper industry
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