The Printing and Writing paper shipments were somewhat sluggish in December, falling 1.0%. Uncoated free sheet, coated free sheet, and uncoated groundwood volumes all showed declines, while light-weight coated paper (magazine and catalogue) shipments grew modestly. For the full year 2006, the entire Printing and Writingcategory was roughly flat, rising 0.2% over 2005 volumes.
However, we expect further closures across USA in 1H07. International Paper (IP) will soon close a 350,000 tpy uncoated machine conversion to Containerboard, and Domtar is expected to move quickly after its pending merger with Weyerhaeuser’s white paper operations to shutter capacity. Together, the IP and Domtar moves should remove 5% of the North American supply base in Uncoated Freesheet papers.
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