In today’s pulp market, decisions made at the fibre level are increasingly shaped by forces far beyond the mill, including rising costs, shifting trade flows, and evolving demand across global markets.

This year’s International Pulp Week program reflects that reality. On Tuesday morning, three speakers will share perspectives that move from fibre performance, to furnish strategy, to the demand forces shaping the industry’s direction. Together, they offer a connected view of how papermakers are navigating a more complex operating environment.

From fibre to performance: Metsä Fibre’s Ismo Nousiainen

Opening day two, Ismo Nousiainen, CEO of Metsä Fibre, will explore the role of northern softwood pulp in Through Air Dried (TAD) tissue, one of the most demanding and energy intensive applications in the pulp value chain.

With more than 25 years of experience across the forest and bio based industries, Nousiainen brings a deep understanding of how fibre characteristics translate into performance at scale. His work at Metsä Fibre has focused on advancing next generation bioproduct mills, improving energy efficiency, and maximizing the value of renewable raw materials.

His presentation, Northern Softwood in TAD Tissue: Performance That Drives Product Quality, highlights how fibre is increasingly viewed not just as an input, but as a key driver of product quality and operational efficiency. In high performance tissue, consistency in fibre properties can influence softness, strength, absorbency, and runnability, while also supporting stability in energy intensive processes.

As mills face rising energy costs and tighter performance requirements, understanding fibre at this level is becoming increasingly critical.

Balancing the mix: UPM’s Aki Temmes on fibre strategy

If Nousiainen’s session focuses on what fibre can deliver, Aki Temmes will examine how papermakers decide which fibres to use and how those decisions are becoming more complex.

As Executive Vice President of UPM Fibres, Temmes oversees a business that spans pulp, timber, and forest operations. His experience across the value chain provides a practical perspective on how fibre decisions are made in a global context.

In Making the Right Fibre Choices, Temmes will explore how softwood and hardwood fibres are combined to optimize performance across tissue, packaging, specialty papers, and board.

Where fibre selection was once driven primarily by technical requirements and relative cost, it must now also account for supply availability, logistics, customer expectations, and risk. Papermakers are balancing multiple variables at once, seeking to maintain flexibility while delivering consistent product quality.

Temmes’ session will look at how companies are working through these trade-offs, drawing on their understanding of fibre and markets to build furnishes that meet both operational and commercial objectives.

Connecting to demand: Numera’s Mathieu Wener on global markets

While fibre performance and selection are critical, they ultimately need to align with demand in global markets that continue to evolve.

That broader view will be provided by Mathieu Wener of Numera Analytics, whose work focuses on business cycle dynamics across developed and emerging markets.

In his presentation, Tissue and Other End-Uses, Wener will examine key end-use segments, including tissue, printing and writing papers, and specialty grades, placing them within the context of inflation, geopolitical uncertainty and increased international competition.

The session will explore how current macro conditions, demographic developments and cost pressures are shaping up the demand outlook for 2026-30.

Wener’s perspective provides that critical link, connecting fibre decisions made at the mill level to the economic forces driving demand around the world.

An integrated view of a global industry

Taken together, these three perspectives reflect how interconnected the pulp industry has become.

Fibre characteristics influence product performance. Fibre choices shape how mills operate and compete. Both must align with demand that is increasingly driven by global economic and geopolitical forces.

The international composition of the speakers also reflects the global nature of the industry, where supply chains, markets, and innovation are closely linked across regions.

For delegates, this session offers more than individual presentations. It provides a clear framework for understanding how decisions at every stage of the value chain are connected, and why those connections matter more in a period of uncertainty and change.

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Join us May 10–12, 2026, at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver
Conference details and registration details can be found here internationalpulpweek.com