End of the Year Uncoated Paper Recap

Most end users paid slightly less for their uncoated copy paper in December, while other uncoated grade’s pricing remained unchanged. All major paper producers announced price increases for non-copy, uncoated commodity papers for January. Domtar and Weyerhaeuser announced machine shut downs equating to nearly 400,000 tons - this decreased supply should assist the market pricing discipline. Conventional wisdom agrees more consolidation will occur - many are betting on a combination of Weyerhaeuser, Domtar and Boise.