Dissolving Pulp (Viscose-Grade Dissolving Wood Pulp)

Kraft and sulphite dissolving wood pulp for viscose staple fibre and specialty cellulose, per air-dry tonne

Dissolving pulp is bleached wood pulp with a cellulose content above 90%, made to be dissolved and turned into fibre, film or cellulose derivatives rather than paper. The customs definition sets the floor: under note 1 to chapter 47 of the Harmonized System, chemical wood pulp, dissolving grades (HS 4702.00) has an insoluble fraction of 92% or more by weight for soda or sulphate pulp, or 88% or more for sulphite pulp with an ash content of no more than 0.15%, after one hour in a caustic soda solution of 18% sodium hydroxide at 20 °C; pulp that falls short is declared under heading 4703 or 4704 as chemical pulp other than dissolving grades. Mills reach that purity in two ways. The sulphite process gives a cellulose content of up to 92% and the prehydrolysis sulphate (kraft) process up to 96%, and special alkaline purification takes them to 96% and 98%; yields are low, 30-35% of the wood, and the highest quality comes from fast-grown hardwoods with a low non-cellulose content. The 90-92% sulphite pulps go mostly to textiles and cellophane, and the 96% kraft pulps to rayon for tyre cord and high-quality fabrics, acetate and other specialty products. The buyer's grade sheet states alpha-cellulose, S18 (the share that dissolves in 18% caustic soda), viscosity, brightness and ash, and the viscose process that uses the pulp steeps it in sodium hydroxide of typically 16-19% by mass before treating it with carbon disulphide. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 4702.00 total USD 6.41 billion across 39 reporters: South Africa, home of Sappi's Saiccor mill at Umkomaas, declared USD 1.06 billion (16.6%), Indonesia USD 1.03 billion and 1.60 million MT, Brazil USD 833 million and 1.12 million MT, the USA USD 669 million, Chile USD 412 million, Sweden USD 368 million and Canada USD 361 million, with Czechia, Norway and Austria at USD 238-250 million each. On the import side, China declared 4.08 million MT and USD 3.90 billion, 54.8% of the import value in the pull, taking 36.5% of it from Indonesia and 19.8% from Brazil; India declared 948,000 MT, 58.5% of the value from South Africa; and Indonesia 458,000 MT.

The buyers are viscose staple fibre (VSF) mills, lyocell lines and cellulose acetate, cellophane and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) producers, and China made about 65% of the world's 5.8 million tons of viscose fibre in 2018. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers dissolving pulp between pulp mills and their sales agents on one side and fibre mills and their importers on the other, lot by lot against the grade the fibre line runs. Pulp is sold per air-dry tonne (ADt), pulp at 90% dryness, baled and wired into units, and shipped breakbulk on open-hatch vessels or in 40-ft containers, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. The trade has a trade-remedy history: China imposed anti-dumping duties on dissolving pulp from the USA, Canada and Brazil from 6 April 2014 for five years, at 16.9-33.5% on US producers, 0-23.7% on Canadian producers and 6.8-11.5% on Brazilian producers, kept them after a 2018 reinvestigation that followed a WTO dispute brought by Canada, and ended them in April 2019. Legality is a condition of shipment: FSC or PEFC chain-of-custody certificates where the buyer requires them; for EU destinations, the EU Deforestation Regulation data, which covers pulp of chapter 47 and applies from 30 December 2026 to large and medium operators and, because the EU Timber Regulation already covered pulp, to micro and small operators too; UK Timber Regulation due diligence for Great Britain; and for the USA, a Lacey Act declaration naming genus, species, country of harvest and recycled content. Send the grade, alpha-cellulose, S18 and viscosity window, tonnage, delivery period and discharge port and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

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.