Bleached Kraft Pulp (BEK / BHKP & NBSK)

Bleached eucalyptus and northern bleached softwood kraft market pulp, in units, per air-dry tonne

Market pulp is sold in two families that do different jobs in the paper machine. Bleached hardwood kraft, mostly bleached eucalyptus kraft (BEK) made from plantation eucalyptus in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Iberia, is short-fibre pulp bought for brightness, bulk and softness, which is why tissue and printing paper mills run so much of it. Northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) from Canada, the USA and the Nordic countries is long-fibre pulp bought for strength, blended in to hold the sheet together on the machine. Pulp is sold per air-dry tonne (ADt), which is pulp at 90% dryness, and commodity grades are specified on brightness (88% ISO or higher for standard ECF grades) and strength, with the mill's grade sheet as the reference. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 4703.29 (bleached non-coniferous chemical pulp) total 32.3 million MT and USD 17.9 billion across the reporters in the pull, and Brazil declared 18.4 million MT of it, 53.5% of the value, ahead of Indonesia (14.0%), Chile (9.2%) and Portugal (4.5%). Under HS 4703.21 (bleached coniferous), 20.6 million MT and USD 15.5 billion, the USA declared 29.4%, Canada 21.8%, Finland 14.9%, Sweden 12.2% and Chile 8.2%.

The buyers are tissue mills, printing and writing paper mills, board mills that use bleached fibre in top layers, and specialty and fluff users. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers market pulp between pulp mills and their sales agents and traders on one side and paper and tissue mills and pulp distributors on the other, lot by lot against the grade the machine runs. Pulp is baled, wired into units, and shipped breakbulk on open-hatch gantry crane vessels, whose holds are dehumidified because pulp loaded in hot, humid Brazil sails to cooler ports where condensation can spoil it, or in 40-ft containers for smaller lots, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Price references are published indices such as the Fastmarkets FOEX PIX indices for NBSK and BHKP in Europe and the mills' list prices, and contracts settle at a discount or premium to them on volume and grade. Each lot carries a mill quality certificate, FSC or PEFC chain-of-custody certificates where claimed, and the EU Deforestation Regulation data for EU destinations, which covers pulp and applies to large and medium operators from 30 December 2026.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.