This paper analyses the emergence of the cellulose industry in Portugal, confronting the technological innovations achieved at an international level with the backwardness of this industrial sector in Portugal. After characterizing the Portuguese paper sector in the 1930's, we will analyse the State's role in the implementation of the wood-based paper pulp industry. A new juridical framework was established to overcome the industry's limitations through a new process of primary industry organization. The Companhia Portuguesa de Celulose (Portuguese Cellulose Company) emerges as a result of theses concerns, but it is only able to achieve adequate organization very late, first with support from the Marshall Plan and, later, from the State Financial Plans (Pianos de Fomento). The CPC, initially dedicated to the production of pinewood pulp and different types of paper, comes to the discover the potential of a new product - eucalyptus pulp obtained by the kraft process, which will become its major activity, especially after winning the inter¬national market. The CPC became a reference in product marketing and in the training of skilled workers and the 1960's witnessed a boom in the requests for the creation of new factories. In 1975, this sector was nationalised and led to a phenomenon of concentration, translated in the creation of Portucel, Public Company.