Pulp Grades
Market pulp is traded in standardised grades. The grade name encodes three things: fibre source (softwood/hardwood/eucalyptus), process (kraft, sulphite, mechanical) and bleaching. Together they determine price, end use, and which mills compete with each other. Which grade ends up in which paper or board is set out on paper products.
The grade profiles on this page are an editorial comparison between grades, not measured values. See the methodology.
Bleached kraft pulps
The dominant market pulp segment.
- NBSK (Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft): the global benchmark grade, made from slow-grown northern spruce and pine. Long, strong fibres for reinforcement in printing papers, tissue and packaging. Priced as the industry reference.
- BSKP (Bleached Softwood Kraft Pulp): the broader softwood kraft category; NBSK is its northern, premium variant.
- BHKP (Bleached Hardwood Kraft Pulp): short-fibre pulp for smoothness and opacity in printing, writing and tissue. Northern birch/aspen variants are traded as NBHK.
- BEKP (Bleached Eucalyptus Kraft Pulp): the plantation-grown hardwood grade from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Iberia; high brightness, bulk and softness. The fastest-growing segment of market pulp.
Unbleached kraft pulps
- UKP (Unbleached Kraft Pulp): strong brown pulp for kraftliner, sack paper and other packaging where strength beats brightness. Softwood variants (USKP) serve the highest-strength applications.
High-purity and specialty pulps
- Dissolving Wood Pulp (DWP): near-pure cellulose for viscose/rayon textiles, cellophane and acetate. Above 90 % alpha-cellulose by definition: typically 90 to 92 % from acid sulphite and 94 to 96 % from prehydrolysis kraft, reaching 96 to 98 % with special alkaline purification. Alpha-cellulose is the fraction insoluble in 17.5 % NaOH, not total carbohydrate. Made by modified kraft or sulphite cooking, so yields are correspondingly low: 35 to 38 % on wood for sulphite dissolving pulp. Demand tracks the textile market rather than paper.
- Specialty cellulose: further refined grades for ethers, pharmaceuticals and filters.
- Fluff pulp: softwood kraft dried in rolls and defibrated into absorbent cores for diapers and hygiene products. Dominated by the US South.
Mechanical and chemi-mechanical pulps
- TMP and groundwood (SGW/PGW): high-yield pulps used close to the mill, mainly in newsprint and publication paper; rarely traded long-distance.
- BCTMP / CTMP: bleached or unbleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp, traded for paperboard middle plies, tissue and printing grades where bulk matters.
Recycled pulps
- DIP (Deinked Pulp): recovered paper with inks removed, for newsprint, tissue and graphic grades.
- Recycled (brown) pulp: repulped OCC for packaging grades, usually produced and consumed on site.
Frequently asked questions
What does NBSK stand for and why is it the benchmark?
Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft: long-fibre pulp from slow-grown northern spruce and pine. Its price is the reference for global pulp contracts because it is the most widely traded strength grade. A weekly price index has been published since 2003, and for scale, average NBSK realisations were around USD 700 per tonne in late 2025.
What is the difference between NBSK and BEKP?
NBSK is long-fibre softwood pulp bought for strength; BEKP is short-fibre eucalyptus pulp bought for brightness, bulk and softness. Most paper machines blend both.
What is dissolving pulp used for?
Textiles. Dissolving pulp is near-pure cellulose that becomes viscose and other man-made cellulosic fibres, so its market follows clothing demand rather than paper demand.
Why is fluff pulp almost always softwood?
Long, coarse, resilient softwood fibres form the absorbent web that hygiene products need. Supply is dominated by the US South, whose pulpwood base and regional supply basket are described on forests. *(We do not state a global fluff-pulp market share: no source at our bar quantifies it.)*
Sources4 references
Dissolving pulp purity and yield
- Sixta, H. (red.) 2006, *Handbook of Pulp*, Wiley-VCH, chapter 1.3. Alpha-cellulose content by dissolving pulp process
- EU BAT Reference Document for the Production of Pulp, Paper and Board (JRC/EIPPCB, 2015), table 4.1. Dissolving pulp yield 35 to 38 %
Pulp prices
- Fastmarkets (FOEX) PIX Pulp NBSK index, launched 7 January 2003, with Fastmarkets price reporting for Q4 2025 and January 2026
United States pulpwood base
- Johnson, Steppleton & Howell 2008, USDA Forest Service Resour. Bull. SRS-139; Winn et al. 2024, *Southern pulpwood production, 2022*, Resour. Bull. SRS-241