Paper Prices and Shipments Continue to Decline

From a Report by Tom Stundza
Fewer customers' demanding paper have continued to cause pricing to deteriorate.
The Pulp and Paper Products Council has reported that North American printing and writing paper shipments have dropped by almost 19% through October, while year-to-date market prices tracked by Purchasing.com have dropped by about 6%.
The RISI reports that the demand slide may be over in early 2010 since overall October shipments of 2,069,000 metric tons were only 9% below the industry's shipments level in September. However, coated free-sheet shipments have dropped 25% so far this year from 2008 levels while coated mechanical paper shipments are down 24%.
The RISI review of industry data shows that overall mill inventories slipped 1,592,000 metric tons at the end of October, which is 95,000 metric tons lower than at the end of September and 198,000 metric tons lower than a year ago.