The Austrian paper industry has had a difficult year in 2023. Sales and quantities sold have fallen sharply. Nevertheless, a record amount of around 300 million euros was invested, 70 percent of which was in reducing CO2 emissions. Because customers are increasingly ordering from places where the paper can be produced in a CO2-neutral way, says the head of the Austropapier trade association. In order to remain competitive, the industry needs stable and reliable framework conditions.
The industry is very interested in switching to CO2-neutral production, as many customers now base their purchase decision on the environmental neutrality of the product in addition to the price. The price still beats the cleanliness of the production, “but in two years that will be over,” said Austropapier President Martin Zahlbruckner on Monday in Vienna at the presentation of the industry’s annual figures.
Two-thirds of Austria’s paper industry already uses renewable energy, but in Scandinavia and Finland the electricity supply with water and nuclear power is 100 percent emission-free. In a few years, the paper industry in the north will be able to produce completely emission-free. While most European countries provide long-term support for energy-intensive industries, this only happened once in Austria in 2022. “In the Union we are fighting once morest companies that receive three-digit million euro amounts,” said Zahlbruckner. Electricity prices in neighboring Germany and the Czech Republic are 10 to 15 percent lower – in Scandinavia, electricity only costs half as much.
The paper industry generates more energy than it consumes – especially as heat, thanks to which 100,000 households in Austria are supplied with district heating, said Austropapier sustainability spokesman Sebastian Heinzel. The primary raw material now consists of 56 percent waste paper, and less than one percent of the material used is produced as waste. However, massive investments are still needed to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
While politicians are demanding stable framework conditions, the industry has entered into a cooperation with the AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology). The AIT is creating a model for the cost-optimal decarbonization of production in the paper industry – which can be flexibly applied at the company level, as AIT expert Veronika Wilk explained.
But it’s not just regarding electricity. Austria’s Renewable Gases Act is also “a good idea, … but as it stands today it leads to extreme inflationary effects for consumers and industry and urgently needs to be overhauled.” Zahlbruckner.
Austropapier expressly does not want to demand any more subsidies. But the government should explain “how” it wants to organize the switch to clean energy – for example how the electricity is generated and over which lines it is distributed. By the way, there is also the danger that Russian gas will no longer be delivered via Ukraine at the turn of the year, like a sword of Damocles hanging over paper production. Stable, long-term framework conditions are necessary when you consider that a new paper machine requires three years of training for skilled workers and then runs for 20 to 30 years.
In 2023, the industry’s sales fell by a good fifth to 4.3 billion euros, and sales volume fell by 12 (pulp) to 16 percent (paper). The decline in sales in Austria was significantly greater than in the rest of Europe. Finding and training skilled workers is a challenge, but Austropapier managing director Sigrid Eckhardt emphasized that the proportion of women among employees has increased to 11.3 percent and even to 15.2 percent among apprentices. This shows that the paper industry is increasingly an attractive industry for women.
