Suzano S.A. (SUZ): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

Are you defintely tracking the world's largest hardwood pulp producer, Suzano S.A., and its aggressive push into the consumer market? This Brazilian giant, with a market capitalization of roughly $11.03 billion as of November 2025, is more than just a commodities play; it's a bioeconomy powerhouse with an annual pulp production capacity of over 13.4 million tons. Think about this: in Q2 2025 alone, Suzano reported a net revenue of R$13.3 billion and a net profit of R$5.0 billion, fueled by strategic moves like the new 51%-owned joint venture with Kimberly-Clark for a global tissue company. How does a company that literally grows its core product manage to consistently deliver these kinds of numbers while navigating volatile global pulp prices and still committing to a purpose of Renewing Life inspired by trees?

Suzano S.A. (SUZ) History

The story of Suzano S.A. is a century-long narrative of transformation, starting with a simple paper trading firm and evolving into the world's largest eucalyptus pulp producer through bold, strategic moves like the Fibria merger and massive capital projects.

You need to understand that this company's current scale-evidenced by its Q2 2025 net revenue of R$13.3 billion-is built on a foundation of pioneering industrial-scale innovation in the mid-20th century. That early courage to commit capital is still a core part of their strategy today, as seen in the recent Cerrado Project.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

1924.

Original location

São Paulo, Brazil. The founder, Leon Feffer, began with a paper trading firm in the city, and the first manufacturing plant, the Ipiranga site, opened in São Paulo in 1941.

Founding team members

The company was founded by Leon Feffer, a Ukrainian immigrant who started with a sole proprietorship for paper trading. His son, Max Feffer, joined in 1949 and was instrumental in the pivotal research that led to eucalyptus pulp production.

Initial capital/funding

The initial capital for the paper trading firm in 1924 is not specified, but a major, transformative capital injection occurred in 1939. Facing paper import difficulties during World War II, Leon Feffer famously sold all his personal possessions, including the house where he lived with his family, to fund the construction of the first paper mill. This move secured the capital needed to start domestic paper production in 1941.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's history is marked by a few pivotal decisions that fundamentally reshaped its scale and market position. The most significant was the pivot from trading to manufacturing, but the 2019 merger with Fibria Celulose S.A. is what created the modern powerhouse.

The merger in 2019 was a game-changer. Suzano Papel e Celulose paid R$27.8 billion to Fibria's shareholders, creating a new entity, Suzano S.A., with an immediate annual production capacity of 11 million tons of market pulp. This scale is what gives the company its cost leadership and global reach, selling to over 80 countries.

The commitment to industrial-scale eucalyptus pulp production is the other major transformation. Max Feffer's research in the 1950s led to the company becoming the first in the world to produce paper and pulp with 100% eucalyptus fiber on an industrial scale by 1961. This technical innovation is the core of their business model.

Most recently, the R$22.2 billion Cerrado Project, announced in 2020, is the latest transformative step, and its impact is already visible in the 2025 financials.

• The new Ribas do Rio Pardo mill's strong operational contribution helped boost pulp sales to 2.651 million tonnes in Q1 2025, a 10% increase over Q1 2024.
• Total sales of pulp and paper reached 3.7 million tonnes in Q2 2025, a 28% increase year-over-year, directly reflecting the new mill's output.
• This operational efficiency helped lower the pulp cash cost (excluding downtime) to R$832 per tonne in Q2 2025, a crucial metric for global competitiveness.

This kind of capital deployment shows a defintely long-term, realist view on commodity markets. If you want to dive deeper into the current financial metrics, you can read Breaking Down Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Ownership Structure

Suzano S.A. is controlled by the Feffer family through a holding company, but a substantial portion of the company is publicly traded, creating a dual-layered governance structure. This setup means the family retains strategic control while the company adheres to the high corporate governance standards of a major public listing.

Given Company's Current Status

Suzano S.A. is a publicly held company, which is a crucial detail for investors like you. It trades on the Novo Mercado, the segment of the São Paulo Stock Exchange (B3) known for its stringent corporate governance rules, and its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at a Level II classification. This dual listing ensures high transparency and broad access to capital markets. As of October 31, 2025, the company had a total of 1,264,116,615 common shares outstanding, all of which are nominative and book-entry shares. You're investing in a global leader that must answer to two major regulatory bodies.

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

The ownership is concentrated at the top, which is typical for a large, family-founded Brazilian corporation, but the public float is significant. The Feffer family's control stems from their majority stake in Suzano Holding S.A., which is the single largest shareholder. The table below shows the capital structure as of October 31, 2025.

Here's the quick math: the Feffer family's direct and indirect stake (through Suzano Holding S.A.) is over 44%, giving them a clear majority in strategic decision-making, even with a large public float of nearly 48.5%. This means institutional investors like BlackRock, which holds a notable stake, still have to align with the family's long-term vision.

Given Company's Leadership

The company's leadership balances family oversight with seasoned professional management, which is defintely a good sign for stability and operational excellence. The Board of Directors is chaired by a family member, while the day-to-day operations are run by a non-family CEO with extensive industry experience.

• David Feffer: Chairman of the Board.
• Daniel Feffer: Vice-Chairman of the Board.
• João Alberto Fernandez de Abreu: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective July 1, 2024, leading the executive team.
• Marcos Moreno Chagas Assumpção: Executive Vice-President of Finance and Investor Relations, a critical role for market communication.
• Maria Luiza de Oliveira Pinto e Paiva: Executive Vice-President of Sustainability, Communication and Brand, highlighting the company's focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance).

The management team has an average tenure of about 3.7 years, suggesting a mix of fresh perspectives and institutional knowledge. You can find more on the principles guiding this team in the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Suzano S.A. (SUZ).

Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Mission and Values

Suzano S.A.'s identity extends beyond its position as the world's largest pulp producer; its core purpose is about 'Renewing life inspired by trees,' which guides every major strategic decision, from forestry to finance. This commitment is translated into a clear set of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets, known as the 'Commitments to Renewing Life.'

Given Company's Core Purpose

The company's cultural DNA is rooted in its role as a bio-based solutions provider, meaning it aims to replace fossil-based materials with products from cultivated eucalyptus. This is a powerful, long-term bet on the bioeconomy (the part of the economy that uses renewable biological resources). It's not just about selling pulp; it's about selling a sustainable alternative.

For example, in 2025, Suzano created the largest Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) in Maranhão, North-Eastern Brazil, covering 5,800 hectares, which shows that conservation is part of the business model, not an afterthought. This focus on nature is a competitive advantage, as it stabilizes productivity and reduces operational risks like pests and wildfires.

Official mission statement

The mission is to be a global reference in developing sustainable and innovative solutions from renewable sources, impacting the lives of over two billion people worldwide through exports to more than 100 countries. This is a high bar, but it forces a focus on innovation (like new packaging paper grades) and global scale. You can dig deeper into who is buying and why by Exploring Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

• Be a global reference in sustainable and innovative solutions.
• Develop products from renewable sources (eucalyptus).
• Impact over two billion people globally.

Vision statement

Suzano's long-term vision is to be the undisputed benchmark in the industry, linking financial performance with ESG leadership. The company aims to be 'best-in-class' in the Total Cost of Pulp vision, which means driving operational efficiency while maintaining its gold standard in sustainability. Honestly, that's how you build a resilient business-cost control plus future-proofing.

• Lead in Sustainable Innovation and operational efficiency.
• Be a benchmark in sustainable and innovative solutions for the bioeconomy.
• Maintain relevance in pulp and uphold a gold standard in all products.

The company has concrete, near-term targets to support this vision, especially in the social sphere for 2025. This isn't just talk; it's capital allocation.

• Remove more than 40 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere by the end of 2025.
• Ensure 100% accessibility for people with disabilities in all plants and offices by 2025.
• Target 30% of leadership positions (functional managers and above) to be occupied by women by 2025.

Given Company slogan/tagline

The company's slogan is a simple, actionable statement that connects its forestry operations directly to its future-focused purpose.

• Suzano: we plant the future.

It's a defintely clean one-liner that tells you exactly what they do and why it matters. Their entire business is built on a 7-year eucalyptus growth cycle, so planting is literally planning for the future.

Suzano S.A. (SUZ) How It Works

Suzano S.A. operates as the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp (BEKP), creating value by managing a vast, fast-growing forest base in Brazil to supply a global market with a low-cost, renewable raw material for paper, packaging, and tissue products. The company's strategy is to leverage its massive scale and cost-efficient industrial base, like the new Ribas do Rio Pardo mill, to maintain a competitive edge despite commodity price volatility.

Honestly, their core business is turning sustainably grown eucalyptus into a globally essential commodity, and they do it cheaper than almost anyone else.

Suzano S.A.'s Product/Service Portfolio

The company's offerings span the entire fiber value chain, from raw pulp to finished consumer goods, with a clear focus on the high-volume global pulp market and strategic expansion into higher-margin paper and packaging segments, especially in North America.

Suzano S.A.'s Operational Framework

The company's operational strength comes from its vertically integrated model, which controls the process from planting the tree to shipping the final product, allowing for tight cost control and high efficiency. This model is heavily supported by massive, strategic capital investments.

• Integrated Forestry Management: Suzano manages about 2.9 million hectares of land in Brazil, with approximately 1.5 million hectares dedicated to planted eucalyptus forests. This closed-loop system ensures a stable, high-quality, and rapidly renewable raw material supply, which is defintely a huge advantage.
• Industrial Scale-Up: The full ramp-up of the new Ribas do Rio Pardo (Cerrado Project) mill is a major 2025 driver, adding 2.55 million tons of annual pulp capacity. This new capacity is expected to boost annual pulp sales volume to around 13.2 million tons in 2025.
• Strategic Downstream Integration: The company is actively integrating its October 2024 acquisition of U.S. paper assets, now branded Suzano Packaging US, which achieved its first positive Adjusted EBITDA in Q3 2025. This moves them closer to the end-consumer in a key market.
• Capital Expenditure Focus: The 2025 capital expenditure (CapEx) guidance is substantial at R$12.4 billion, focusing on maintenance and residual investments in the new mill and forest acquisitions to secure long-term raw material supply.

For more on the financial underpinnings of this operational scale, you should check out Breaking Down Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Suzano S.A.'s Strategic Advantages

Suzano's market success is grounded in structural advantages that are difficult for competitors to replicate, primarily centered on its Brazilian asset base and its commitment to cost leadership.

• Unmatched Cost Competitiveness: The company consistently operates as a first-quartile, low-cost producer globally. The Q3 2025 pulp cash production cost of R$801 per tonne demonstrates a 7% year-on-year reduction, a clear result of the new, highly efficient Ribas do Rio Pardo mill.
• Global Market Dominance and FX Resilience: As the world's largest hardwood pulp producer, its massive scale gives it pricing power and logistical efficiencies. About 80% of its revenue is from exports, which provides a natural hedge and resilience against fluctuations in the Brazilian Real (BRL) exchange rate.
• Sustainable Fibre Supply: Rapid-growth eucalyptus plantations in Brazil offer a much shorter harvest cycle than northern hemisphere softwood, reducing working capital needs and ensuring a sustainable, high-yield supply. This is a crucial, structural advantage.
• Strong Financial Buffer: Despite high CapEx, the company maintains a solid financial profile with a Q3 2025 cash position of US$6.5 billion, providing flexibility for deleveraging and future strategic investments.

Suzano S.A. (SUZ) How It Makes Money

Suzano S.A. primarily makes money as the world's largest producer of market pulp, selling vast quantities of bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp (BEKP) to manufacturers globally, and secondarily through the sale of paper, paperboard, and tissue products.

The company's financial engine is a high-volume, low-cost model where revenue is generated from the commodity-like sale of pulp, which is highly sensitive to global pricing, plus the more stable, value-added sales of its paper and packaging products.

Suzano S.A.'s Revenue Breakdown

Based on the first quarter of 2025 (1Q25) financial data, the company's net revenue of R$11.55 billion was overwhelmingly driven by pulp sales, which is typical for the world's largest producer of the commodity.

Here's the quick math: Pulp sales volume (2,651 thousand tonnes) multiplied by the average price (R$3,249/t) accounted for about R$8.61 billion, while Paper sales volume (390 thousand tonnes) at R$7,540/t generated roughly R$2.94 billion.

Business Economics

The core business economics for Suzano S.A. are defined by its massive scale, cost competitiveness, and exposure to volatile global commodity prices, plus the structural shift toward packaging and tissue. You need to watch three things: volume from new capacity, cost control, and global pulp price swings.

• Pricing Strategy: Pulp is a global commodity, so Suzano S.A. is a price-taker, not a price-setter. They respond to market conditions, for example, announcing a US$20 per metric tonne price hike for Asian clients in mid-2025 to test the market amid competitor cost pressures.
• Cost Advantage: The company focuses on maintaining the lowest cash cost of production globally, which is their main competitive moat (a long-term structural advantage). The pulp cash production cost (excluding downtime) fell to R$801 per tonne in the third quarter of 2025 (3Q25), a 7% year-on-year decrease, due to operational efficiencies from the new Ribas do Rio Pardo mill.
• Supply Management: In a soft market, Suzano S.A. is willing to cut production to support prices. They announced a planned 3.5% output cut (about 450,000 metric tonnes) over a year in mid-2025 to manage global supply and mitigate the impact of weak Chinese prices.
• Currency Exposure: As a Brazilian exporter, a weaker Brazilian Real (BRL) against the US Dollar (USD) is a tailwind, boosting BRL-denominated revenue when USD-priced pulp is sold. Still, a weaker exchange rate for exports was cited as a negative influence on Q3 2025 results.

To be fair, the company's long-term strategy includes expanding into higher-margin products like paperboard and tissue, as seen with the integration of US packaging operations and the joint venture with Kimberly-Clark. This diversifies their revenue away from pure commodity pulp. You can read more about their long-term focus here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Suzano S.A. (SUZ).

Suzano S.A.'s Financial Performance

Suzano S.A.'s 2025 performance shows the impact of increased production volume from the new mill, which is helping them generate cash even as global pulp prices remain under pressure. The third quarter (3Q25) results, released in November 2025, are a good snapshot of this dynamic.

• Net Revenue: The third quarter of 2025 saw net revenue total R$12.2 billion, which was broadly flat compared to the previous year, showing the volume increase largely offset lower pulp prices.
• Adjusted EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) for 3Q25 was a strong R$5.2 billion, indicating healthy operational profitability despite market challenges.
• Net Profit: Net profit for 3Q25 was R$2 billion. This is defintely a key metric to watch, as it can be volatile due to the accounting impact of US dollar-denominated debt and hedging operations translating into Brazilian Real.
• Sales Volume: Combined pulp and paper sales volume in 3Q25 reached 3.6 million tonnes, a significant 20% increase over the same quarter last year, mainly driven by the new Ribas do Rio Pardo mill.
• Net Leverage: The company's net leverage (Net Debt/Adjusted EBITDA) ended 3Q25 at 3.3 times in U.S. dollars. Managing this ratio and deleveraging is a stated priority for management, especially after large capital investments.

Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Market Position & Future Outlook

Suzano S.A. is the undisputed global leader in the hardwood pulp market, with the full ramp-up of the Cerrado Project in 2025 cementing its position as the lowest-cost producer, but you must still watch the near-term risk of a global pulp price correction. The company's strategic focus is now shifting from massive capital expenditure (CapEx) to deleveraging and integrating new, high-margin downstream assets, which should drive a significant free cash flow expansion in the coming years.

Competitive Landscape

Suzano dominates the Bleached Hardwood Kraft Pulp (BHKP) market, responsible for roughly one-third of global production, a scale advantage that translates directly into a superior cost structure. Here's how the major players stack up in the global pulp and paper landscape as of late 2025.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategy is clear: solidify its cost base and expand into higher-margin consumer-facing products. But honestly, the market environment is defintely challenging due to new supply.

Industry Position

Suzano's industry standing is defined by its structural cost advantage and a deliberate shift toward value-added segments. Its pulp cash production cost fell to a highly competitive R$801 per tonne in the third quarter of 2025, a 7% year-on-year decrease. This is a massive competitive moat, allowing the company to remain profitable even when marginal producers are operating at or below cost.

The company is transitioning from a heavy investment phase, with the 2025 CapEx revised to a substantial R$13.3 billion, largely due to the Cerrado ramp-up and a new wood fiber contract. This high spending kept net leverage at 3.3 times EBITDA in Q3 2025, but the focus is now on deleveraging.

• Sustained focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) is a key differentiator, with a commitment to connect 500,000 hectares of conservation areas by 2030, which also helps lower the cost of capital through sustainable finance.
• Pulp sales volume is projected to reach 13.2 million tons in 2025 with the new mill fully operational.
• The Q3 2025 net profit was R$2 billion, showing strong cash generation despite lower pulp prices.

For a deeper dive into the shareholder base and investment rationale, you should read Exploring Suzano S.A. (SUZ) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?. The next step is watching the pulp price trend against the new capacity coming online.