SCA has customers all over the world. The European internal market accounts for about 60% of the Group’s sales, while the remainder are primarily derived from Asia, North America and Africa. The raw material from forests in northern Sweden is a key competitive advantage.
The wood raw material to which SCA has access in northern Sweden has a high proportion of heartwood and small knots. This makes it suitable for visible wood applications, and for interior applications such as flooring. The raw material is also suitable for products subject to high quality standards, such as interior and exterior cladding. SCA has chosen to focus in particular on the wood industry and building materials trade, which are market segments where these characteristics are in demand and that offer the best prospects for profitable growth.
Wood processing industries are a key customer group for SCA and we produce customized products that are well suited to further processing. Our customers are mainly manufacturers of furniture, doors, windows, flooring and roofs.
For the building materials trade, SCA delivers processed products that are ready for consumer sales. We supplement our own products with products purchased from other suppliers in order to offer a complete range of products. Customers are primarily building materials suppliers in Scandinavia, France and the US. The products are also sold directly to industrial timber-frame housing producers.
SCA produces bleached softwood kraft pulp and chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP). Most of the softwood kraft pulp is used to make tissue, but we also supply pulp for board and publication paper.
Softwood kraft pulp, which is made from wood fiber from northern Sweden, is in demand due to its strength. In tissue, it is often combined with pulp based on deciduous trees, such as birch or eucalyptus, or pulp based on recovered paper. Different types of pulp contribute to different properties in the end product. Since softwood kraft pulp contributes to strength, it cannot easily be replaced by pulp produced from other wood sources and with other pulp characteristics.
CTMP is mainly used to manufacture tissue and board. For example, CTMP is used in the middle ply in liquid packaging board to provide bulk to the packaging. SCA’s core market for pulp is Europe, but due to increasing production volumes, SCA’s sales to US customers have also grown, with a stable presence on the US east coast.
Containerboard is the outer and inner layer of corrugated board, which is used to manufacture packaging. SCA mainly uses fresh fiber, known as kraftliner, to produce containerboard. In addition to fresh fiber, carefully selected recovered fibers are also used. Fresh fiber from sustainable forestry is renewable and recyclable and together with recovered fiber these contribute to a circular ecosystem.
SCA’s product portfolio includes a variety of specialty products, including kraftliner with a printable white surface, and wet-strength kraftliner. Wet-strength kraftliner is used for packaging with particularly high demands, such as packaging for food or heavy goods. The slow-growing wood raw material from northern Sweden provides strength and is well suited for high-quality packaging that uses materials efficiently. The core market is Europe, and SCA is the largest independent supplier of fresh fiber-based kraftliner in Europe.
SCA is one of the largest suppliers of forest-based biofuels in Sweden, with unrefined by-products from the forest and industry, as well as refined fuels in the form of pellets. Our wide range enables deliveries of wood-fuel blends according to customer request.
SCA’s biofuels are used for energy production, electricity and heating, mainly in the Swedish market.
We deliver biofuels to our own industries, and to external customers such as large CHP plants, local heating plants, large and small heating facilities, apartment buildings and houses. Bioenergy is Sweden’s largest source of energy.
The start-up of the biorefinery in Gothenburg began at the end of 2023. This is the first facility where SCA is producing renewable vehicle fuel, and SCA owns a 25% stake in the plant. The biorefinery has a total annual production capacity of approximately 200,000 tonnes of liquid biofuel.
The biorefinery produces liquid biofuel from sources such as tall oil, which is a by-product of our pulp production. Due to our unique forest resources and extensive pulp production, we can supply large volumes.
The fact that the raw material is a forest product offers major advantages compared with fossil-intensive products. When we make products from the forest, we do not introduce CO₂ into the atmosphere, but rather ‘borrow’ CO₂ from nature’s green cycle.
As Europe’s largest private forest owner, SCA has many areas of land with favorable wind conditions. A significant expansion of wind power is currently underway. At the end of 2023, the annual production capacity of wind power on SCA’s land was 9.0 TWh, based on normal wind conditions. This is equivalent to about 20% of Sweden’s total installed wind power capacity.
SCA strives to be self-sufficient in electricity and adapts the expansion of wind power to the company’s industrial operations.
Demand for green electricity in northern Sweden is considered good in the long term, considering the planned or ongoing industrial projects in the region.
SCA is an important part of society in Sweden, being an important employer with strong ties to the communities in the north where our industries and businesses are located. We create jobs, we develop infrastructure and we turn a renewable natural resource into export revenues. We are committed to creating value as a sustainable business for our shareholders, customers and employees.
SCA is organized in five business areas: Forest, Wood, Containerboard, Pulp and Renewable Energy. The supporting unit is Sourcing & Logistics.
In combination with a high degree of self-sufficiency and a strong project portfolio, long-term increasing returns to SCA's shareholders are possible.