Volume 14, Number 8
Dec 1990

Acid-Free Paper Production Reaches Halfway Mark

The bar graph below was constructed on the basis of figures supplied by Pfizer's Specialty Minerals Group in September, soon after they were updated. (Pfizer is a major supplier of calcium carbonate, which is used in nearly all alkaline papers.)

"Freesheet" means paper containing little or no groundwood or other types of mechanical pulp--the kind of paper used for office work and printing of high-quality books. Coated freesheet, which has been ahead of uncoated in converting to alkaline, passed the half-way mark in 1988, but it only makes up a quarter of all freesheet production.

Capacity figures are given because production figures vary from month to month and are hard to track.