The stronger shipments were reported for most of the paper and pulp grades in February, as well as December and January, this will support our position that the business is now recovering and the paper industry, accordingly, is reviewing pricing increases.
Uncoated Papers
The Uncoated Freesheet shipments were up 5.7% from February 2009. This was the largest increase in over 3 years (Note, February 2009 vs 2008 was down 20.8%).
Mills such as International Paper and Domtar continue to take significant capacity reductions.
Coated Papers
Coated paper shipments also witnessed increased shipments.
Lightweight (publication) coated paper (LWC) shipments increased 21.0% versus February 2009 and coated free sheet increased 9.7%. (Note, last January, those two
categories posted declines of 37.4% and 24.6%, respectively).
Producers of coated free sheet will continue to benefit from duties recently announced for some Chinese and Indonesian imports and I suspect shipments will continue to advance.
Market Pulp
Domtar announced a $50/mton price increase in North America and Europe for both the NBSK and NBHK grades, effective April 1. If successful, the hike would be the 10th price increase in the last 12 months. The market has absolutely tightened as a result of both the Chile earthquake and strike at the Finnish ports. Additional market pulp producers that reported an increase include, Sodra's $40/ton April price hike on NBSK for Europe. Fibria announced a $50/mton global increase on (hardwood) BEK.
Reports suggest that the $30-50/mton price increase for March on softwood and hardwood grades in North America, Europe and Asia have gone through without much push back.
If the April price announcement is successful, NBSK pulp prices would
be up 50% from this time in 2009. NBSK (benchmark grade) pulp list price will be at $960/mton, up 30%.
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3 comments:
good stuff here. We enjoy reading your releases. They always seem to be 'right on'.
Agree, thank you Coy Paper for providing such timely information on an industry that is difficult to learn what is happening in real time.
Looks like 2010 off to a good start, despite all the price increases. I suppose inventories are just so low, orders must be placed. Is there true increased demand? Is all the new paper being ordered being sold to the ultimate end user or restocking low inventories? Can anyone remark on this?
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