The evolution of South American pulp and paper industry: Focus on Brazil, Chile and Uruguay

Investments in technology to achieve higher yield from, mainly, eucalyptus plantations is one of the central reasons to get to know the evolution of the pulp and paper industry in South America. A country approach follows, demonstrating how the industry has evolved in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, although this is not a complete account of this evolution. In a continuum of development of the industry and the forestry technologies developed, the countries could be ranked from low, the case of Uruguay, to medium, the case of Chile, to high, the case of Brazil. Especially in the case of the pulp plant, CMPC, the only company that could have undertaken the enterprise, found it too risky. The proposed plant was required to supply first the internal market, as a means of implementing an import substitution strategy. CMPC, however, was envisaging a plant of medium-high capacity, contrary to global standards of the time.