RISI today announced that International Paper (IP) is once more at the top of the PPI Top 100 list of the world's leading pulp and paper companies. According to the yearly ranking, there has been small movement among the top 10 firms in the division, with Stora Enso holding on to its number two position and Procter & Gamble coming in third.

RISI also discovered that for the first time this year, there are more European companies in the PPI Top 100 than North American, but the US and Canadian companies still account for the biggest percentage of net sales at 37.4% compared to 36.0% for their European counterparts. Unsurprisingly, the major Chinese producers have again moved up the rankings of the global pulp and paper players. Shandong Chenming is now at 43, Nine Dragons has moved up to 54, Lee & Man has jumped to 61 and Shandong Huatai is at 85th place. Overall, Asian companies make up 16.3% of the net sales of pulp, paper and converting among the Top 100 firms in the industry.

The yearly PPI Top 100 is the only ranking of the world's largest pulp and paper companies by net sales.

In addition to the Top 100 article, RISI has posted PDFs of all the tables in the report, providing access to comparative sales data, earnings for 2006 and 2007, total assets, production figures for pulp, market pulp, paper and board.

About RISI

RISI is the leading information provider for the worldwide forest products industry. The company works with clients in the pulp and paper, wood products, timber, tissue, nonwovens, printing and publishing industries to help them make better decisions.

Headquartered in Boston (Bedford), Massachusetts, RISI operates offices in Brussels, Belgium; Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; Shanghai, China; Singapore; Sao Paulo, Brazil and Charlottesville, Virginia.