The annual London Pulp Week Symposium, organised by consultancy Hawkins Wright with the British Wood Pulp Association (BWPA), took place on 12 November at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in London. A fixture of the pulp industry calendar, the symposium is held each year as part of London Pulp Week and is dedicated to the latest trends in the global pulp market.
The programme opened with a welcome from Tom Wright, Managing Director of Hawkins Wright, and Ari Borg, President of the BWPA. It then moved to the wider economic context, with journalist and author James Kynge, a specialist in China, examining whether the country’s rise to technological supremacy is sustainable.
On the financial side, Marcio Farid of Goldman Sachs, who leads the bank’s Latin America basic materials coverage, discussed how investors view pulp and paper within the broader commodities context. Robert A. Taylor, Sustainability Director at UPM Fibres, addressed climate change, fibre availability and the future of the pulp sector.
After the mid-morning break, Tomas Höglund of Valmet, Senior Mill Wide, Technology Sales, asked what would change if pulp were seen as more than a commodity. Felix Grünewald and Andrea Gandolfi of McKinsey & Company then presented on artificial intelligence as a key performance lever for the paper and pulp industry in a period of low growth. Grünewald leads the firm’s European Paper & Packaging Practice, and Gandolfi leads its work on applying AI to pulp and paper operations.
The final presentation was the outlook for market pulp, delivered by Oliver Lansdell of Hawkins Wright, co-author of the firm’s Outlook for Market Pulp service and an editor of its monthly newsletter Pulpwatch. A buffet lunch closed the programme.
The 2026 symposium was supported by sponsors including Roxcel, Bracell, Arauco, Valmet, Altri, Metsä, Södra, Eldorado, Suzano, Cellmark, APRIL, Klabin, G2 Ocean, UPM Pulp, Nouryon and CMPC, as well as the Paper & Tissue Show London.
