Production of Pulp and Paper

The production of wood pulp, and paper from this, is a primary industry in the sense of its utilization of a wood primary resource as its chief raw material, but it is also a secondary industry in the sense that it consumes large quantities of bulk inorganic chemicals such as chlorine, sodium hydroxide, pigments etc. produced by the primary chemical, or commodity chemical industry. In fact the pulp and paper business area alone consumes close to 10% of the inorganic chemicals produced in the countries in which it is a dominant industry, thus not only contributing directly to the employment and business activity in these areas, but also indirectly by its purchase from these primary areas of chemicals production.