Uncoated Free Sheet Capacity Update

Uncoated Freesheet is defined as papers for three primary product groups – business papers (copy paper) 43% of market, printing and converting (offset 24%, envelope11%, form bond8.5%, tablet 2%), and value added (text and cover 2.5%, carbonless 4.5%, technical 2.3%). USA demand has continued to decline from its peak of 15milion tons in 1999 to an estimated drop of 20% or 3million tons to 12million tons by end of 2008. Current drop is mainly due to electronic information replacing paper. As outlined in an earlier Paper.com new release, capacity has also declined. Nearly 2million tons were slated for curtailment or conversion in 2007 alone, this follows 435,000 tons in 2006.