Pulp entrepreneur Erling Lorentzen dies at 98
Founder of Aracruz Celulose, today Suzano, the Norwegian businessman based in Brazil has become an important figure in the pulp industry
Norwegian businessman based in Brazil, Erling Lorentzen, founder of Aracruz Celulose, today Suzano, died, at 98, in Oslo. The death was confirmed by the Norwegian royal family, of which Lorentzen was a part. “It is with great sadness that we receive the sad message that Erling Sven Lorentzen has fallen asleep. Our thoughts go to your loved ones, who have lost a good father, father-in-law, grandfather and great-grandfather,” said King Harold V of Norway, in an official statement, without revealing the cause of Erling’s death.
Lorentzen was born in Oslo, Norway, on January 28, 1923. He fought in World War II, against the Germans, at the age of 17. In 1945, he was accepted at Harvard University in the USA; in 1953, he married Princess Ragnhild of Norway, the eldest daughter of King Olavo V and Princess Marta of Sweden, with whom he had three children, Haakon, Ingeborg and Ragnhild. In the same year, he moved to Brazil because of the family’s business in the maritime transport segment. Arriving in the country, he acquired, from the American company Esso, the kitchen gas distributor. Then he opened his own shipping company, Norsul.
Erling has become an important figure in the pulp industry. In 1972, he founded Aracruz Celulose, in Espírito Santo, considered the first online pulp mill in Brazil. Subsequently, it became the first company in the forestry sector in the world to appear on the list of companies on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World) 2007/2008 of the New York Stock Exchange.
On September 1, 2009, the company merged with VCP to form Fibria, becoming a global leader in the pulp market and with an estimated annual net revenue of R $ 6 billion. In 2018, Suzano Papel e Celulose acquired Fibria for R $ 65 billion.
