BASELINE STUDY 5, Thailand - Forest Trends

Pulp and Paper
The Thai pulp and paper sector is split into a small number of major players.
Siam Cement Group owns subsidiaries involved in the pulp and paper industry, notably the Siam Pulp and Paper
Company. In 2005, 30% of the shares of SCG were held by Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau (CPB), which
represents the investment arm of the Thai monarchy (Phorphant 2008).
Siam Forestry is the forestry arm of Siam Pulp and Paper. In 2004, it directly owned 1,280 hectares of plantation
land in Khampeng Phet province and 160 hectares in Kanchanaburi (Barney 2005).
Siam Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of the Siam Cement Group (SCG), is the largest integrated pulp manufacturer
in Thailand. Siam Pulp and Paper manages pulp and paper manufacturing mills in Kanchanaburi and Rachaburi
provinces. In 2005 SCG purchased Phoenix Pulp and Paper, another major pulp producer based in Khon Kaen
province. Siam Pulp and Paper products include kraft pulp, printing and writing paper, corrugated paper, packaging
paper and corrugated containers. SCG is a member of the Sustainable Forest Products Industry (SFPI) of
the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
95 per cent of Siam Pulp and Paper’s wood supply is secured from 30,000 contract farmers, 80 per cent of
which are smallholders with farm sizes of less than 10 hectares (Jones 2010). Siam Forestry, the forestry arm of
the company, directly owns 1,280 hectares of plantation land in Khampeng Phet province and 160 hectares in
Kanchanaburi (Barney 2005). In September 2010, 1,325 hectares of plantations in central and Western Thailand
managed Siam Forestry were certified by SGS accreditors as meeting Forest Stewardship Council standards.
This is a group certification of 29 group members (each managing under 100 hectares of forestland) under the
FSC-SLIMF group certification system. SCG has recently begun exporting woodchips to China (Jones 2010).
Advance Agro: With a manufacturing base in Prachinburi province and a supply zone that extends throughout
central, eastern and northeast Thailand and into Laos, Advance Agro is the largest pulp producer in Thailand,
accounting for a 44% of national production. Average round log requirements are between 2-3 million m 3 in the
production of BHKP- bleached hardwood kraft pulp.
Sawmilling Industries
After a forced restructuring in the sawmilling sector after the 1989 logging ban, most of the rubberwood
sawmillers are now owned by furniture companies. The Thai sawmilling sector can be characterized as labour
intensive using low technology, and recovery rates from roundwood to sawnwood are low—between 20-35
per cent. In the rubberwood sector: “The processing system is targeted at maximizing the throughput rather
than at high conversion rates, or even less at optimization of the potential log yield” (FAO 2009:62).
Wood-Based Panel Producers
Although dated, the following list provides names for a number of major wood-based panel manufacturers in
Thailand as of 2002.
© EU FLEGT Facility, BASELINE STUDY 5, Thailand: Overview of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, July 2011
This Action is funded by the European Union and the governments of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The views expressed herein
can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
www.euflegt.efi.int
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