 | |  | | | Chapter XIV - Financial Benchmarking Using Self-Organizing Maps Studying the International Pulp and Paper Industry | | Data Mining: Opportunities and Challenges | | by John Wang (ed) | | | Idea Group Publishing 2003 | | | | Brought to you by Team-Fly | | | Each year, in its September issue, Pulp and Paper International ranks the top 150 pulp and paper-producing companies in the world, according to net sales. The list for 1998 (Matussek, Janssens, Kenny, & Riannon, 1999) was used as the basis when choosing the companies in Eklund et al. (2001). Since then, an updated list has been reviewed (Rhiannon, Jewitt, Galasso, & Fortemps, 2001), and the changes were incorporated in the experiment. This experiment was limited to using data available through the companies' annual reports for the years 1995 2000. The primary source for these annual reports was the individual companies' homepages on the Internet, but any physical reports available were also used. The principle problem in the choice of companies was getting annual reports for all five years. As it turns out, many companies did not provide enough information on their homepages, and we were forced to leave out many companies that were highly ranked on the Top 150 list. This problem was most common among European (excluding Scandinavian companies) and Asian countries, although some U.S. and Canadian companies also caused difficulties. However, through large online databases, we were able to obtain adequate financial information for most U.S., Canadian, and Japanese companies. Generally, the companies that provided the most financial information on their pages were Finnish or Swedish. The final selection of companies is illustrated in Table 1. Table 1: The included companies | Finland | | 1 | Average | | | 2 | Ahlstr m | 1995 00 | | 3 | M-Real Oy | 1995 00 | | 4 | Stora Enso OY | 1995 00 | | 5 | UPM-Kymmene OY | 1995 00 | | Sweden | | 6 | Average | | | 7 | AssiDom n | 1995 00 | | 8 | Korsn s | 1995 00 | | 9 | MoDo AB | 1995 00 | | 10 | Munksj AB | 1995 00 | | 11 | Rottneros AB | 1995 00 | | 12 | SCA AB | 1995 00 | | 13 | S dra AB | 1995 00 | | Norway | | 14 | Average | | | 15 | Norske Skog A.S. | 1995 00 | | 16 | Peterson Group | 1995 00 | | USA | | 17 | Average | | | 18 | Boise Cascade | 1995 00 | | 19 | Bowater | 1995 00 | | 20 | Buckeye Techologies | 1995 00 | | 21 | Caraustar Industries | 1995 00 | | 22 | Champion International | 1995 99 | | 23 | Consolidated Papers | 1995 99 | | 24 | Crown Vantage | 1995 99 | | 25 | Fort James | 1995 99 | | 26 | Gaylord Container Corp | 1995 00 | | 27 | Georgia-Pacific Corp | 1995 00 | | 28 | International Paper | 1995 00 | | 29 | Jefferson-Smurfit Corp. | 1995 00 | | 30 | Kimberly-Clark | 1995 00 | | 31 | Longview Fiber Corp. | 1995 00 | | 32 | Mead | 1995 00 | | 33 | P.H. Glatfelter | 1995 00 | | 34 | Pope & Talbot | 1995 00 | | 35 | Potlatch Corp. | 1995 00 | | 36 | Rayonier | 1995 00 | | 37 | Riverwood Holding | 1995 00 | | 38 | Rock-Tenn Company | 1995 00 | | 39 | Schweitzer-Mauduit Intl. | 1995 00 | | 40 | Sonoco Products | 1995 00 | | 41 | Stone Container | 1995 97 | | 42 | Temple-Inland | 1995 00 | | 43 | Union Camp. | 1995 98 | | 44 | Wausau-Mosinee Paper | 1995 00 | | 45 | Westvaco | 1995 00 | | 46 | Weyerhaeuser | 1995 00 | | 47 | Willamette Industries | 1995 00 | | Canada | | 48 | Average | | | 49 | Abitibi Consolidated | 1995 00 | | 50 | Alliance | 1995 00 | | 51 | Canfor | 1995 00 | | 52 | Cascades Inc. | 1995 00 | | 53 | Crestbrook Forest Ind.Ltd. | 1995 97 | | 54 | Doman Industries | 1995 00 | | 55 | Domtar Inc. | 1995 00 | | 56 | Donohue | 1995 99 | | 57 | MacMillan Bloedel | 1995 98 | | 58 | Nexfor | 1995 00 | | 59 | Tembec Inc. | 1995 00 | | 60 | West Fraser Timber | 1995 00 | | Japan | | 61 | Average | | | 62 | Daio Paper | 1995 99 | | 63 | Daishowa Paper Manuf | 1995 99 | | 64 | Chuetsu Paper | 1995 99 | | 65 | Hokuetsu Paper Mills | 1995 99 | | 66 | Japan Paperboard Industr | 1995 99 | | 67 | Mitsubishi Paper | 1995 99 | | 68 | Nippon Kakoh Seishi | 1995 99 | | 69 | Nippon Paper Industries | 1995 00 | | 70 | Oji Paper | 1995 00 | | 71 | Pilot (Lintec) | 1995 00 | | 72 | Rengo | 1995 99 | | 73 | Settsu | 1995 98 | | 74 | Tokai Pulp & Paper | 1995 99 | | Europe | | 75 | Average | | | 76 | ENCE Group (Spain) | 1995 00 | | 77 | Frantschach (AUT) | 1995 99 | | 78 | Industrieholding Cham (SUI) | 1995 00 | | 79 | Inveresk (UK) | 1995 00 | | 80 | Mayr-Melnhof (AUT) | 1995 00 | | 81 | Reno de Medici (ITA) | 1995 00 | | 84 | Cartiere Burgo (ITA) | 1995 00 | | Australia & New Zealand | | 82 | Amcor (AUS) | 1995 00 | | 83 | Fletcher Challenge Group (NZE) | 1995 99 | Some companies could not be included for other reasons. For example, on the list for 2000, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) was listed as the third largest producer in the world. However, as only 30% of P&G's turnover comes from pulp and paper, we decided not to include it. Also, number six on the list, Nippon Unipac holding, was formed by the merger of Nippon Paper Industries and Daishowa Paper in March 2001, and was, therefore, still included as two separate companies. Also, two companies (Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene), were included as single companies, even though they emerged through the mergers of companies during the course of the experiment. However, using consolidated reports published by the companies after the merger, we included them as single companies, in order to simplify analysis. | | Brought to you by Team-Fly | | | |
