That would have been big news, almost, in the news:
*Fact check: is this France’s last pulp mill?
The phrasing “France’s last market pulp manufacturer” appears in practically all French reporting, but it needs to be clarified.
Production in the French pulp industry stood at 1.3 million tons in 2025, distributed across about ten mills, most of which are integrated. The following remain regardless of what happens in Saint-Gaudens:
- Smurfit Westrock, Facture-Biganos (Gironde). Integrated kraftliner mill with its own sulfate pulp from Landes pine wood, capacity around 500,000 tons of paper.
- Sylvamo, Saillat-sur-Vienne (Haute-Vienne). France’s only fully integrated office paper mill, approximately 600 employees. The company itself states that the mill also manufactures pulp intended for sale.
- RYAM, Tartas (Landes). 140,000 tons of specialty cellulose per year, world leader in high-viscosity cellulose for cellulose ethers, plus second-generation bioethanol since 2024. This is market pulp, but dissolving grade for the chemical industry, not paper pulp.
- Gascogne Papier (Mimizan) and La Rochette Cartonboard, both integrated.
The correct formulation is thus that Fibre Excellence is France’s last pure-play producer of virgin fiber market paper pulp on an industrial scale and that the group’s 550,000 tons accounted for essentially the entire French production of that specific commodity. France will not be left without a cellulose industry if Saint-Gaudens goes down, but it will become entirely dependent on imports of market pulp for its paper and hygiene industries.