North American Pulp and Paper Cost-Benchmarking Data and Software Subscription

Objective

The Contractor will deliver a comprehensive production cost benchmarking, carbon benchmarking and financial datasets, plus supporting software/web applications, for North American pulp and paper producers at the machine, mill and firm level. Given the rate of change in the sector, the datasets must be updated on a quarterly basis to provide analysts and policy makers with information as current as possible.

The cost benchmarking data will be broken down into cost categories including capital costs, fibre, energy, chemical, personnel, materials and overhead costs, as well as financial metrics for public companies. The ability to model product delivery to a variety of North American destinations must also be included, as should user defined map creation. The Contractor will provide on-going customer support for their product for the length of the contract. NRCan will use this information to evaluate the competitiveness of the Canadian pulp and paper sector in various markets. It is essential that the production and cost benchmarking data be traceable up to the detailed finished furnish level. The data and accompanying software will further enable user defined scenario analysis over a wide range of variables including adjustments to input costs, output price, transportation costs and exchange rates. Data for the production costs of mills that have closed since 2007 should also be included, as should problem solving and IT support.

The carbon benchmarking data will cover every mill in the dataset and include emissions by type (e.g. electricity, fossil fuel etc.) and by machine. NRCan will use this information as part of its estimatation of the carbon emission of the pulp and paper sector. The data and accompanying software will enable user defined scenario analyses. Problem solving and IT support should also be included.