From the 19th century to the 1960s, the sulfite process was the dominant process for the production of pulps. During the second half of the 1960s, a major closure of the factories began. The reason was that when the factories were built in the 19th century, the sulfite process was simpler as this avoided expensive chemical recycling and less air pollution as in the pulp process. Also, the pulp could be bleached and textiles, varnishes etc. could be manufacture from sulfite pulps.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the kraft pulp process was developed so that the pulp could be bleached and special pulps could be produced. When the environmental problems at the ever larger factory facilities came to light in the 1950s, it became the law in several countries that cleaner processes were required. This meant that during the 1950s and 1960s, the sulfite processes were developed to be able to compete with the Kraft pulp factories.

However, oil-based products were developed for textiles, varnishes and much more. These were both cheaper and better than products from wood. In this way, the investments became more expensive and there was no incentive for the sulfite process to be further developed as the kraft pulp process already had all the processes fully developed and was more flexible. This meant that the market for sulfite pulps disappeared from the mid-1960s onwards. However, from the 1990s, people began to become interested in sulfite pulp again due to the fact that it can be bleached without chlorine and different biochemicals could be produced that could not be made in a kraft pulp process.