Hercules and Akzo share the big market rather evenly, and the other players participating here and there. ASA has made some strides in board production, primarily on the Continent. Some technology transfer within global paper corporations has occurred. Nalco and Cytec share the growing market. The European market for recycled paperboard is still small and far behind the U.S. in terms of quality and volume, but growing imports and global consumer goods consolidation are changing the European mill perspectives.
Production is no longer regional in nature.
AKD's biggest accounts, as in North America, are the large bleached board mills in Nordic Europe. The start-up of Stora Billerud's new machine at Skoghall is adding thousands of new tons of AKD to the consumer markets.