A4 sized paper for a printer or newspaper, including cardboard packaging rose nearly 15% in their final price according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and could see their costs increase a few cents soon. The cause? Their costs of the raw material, pulp, are on the rize.
Up 53% since its collapse to 577 dollars per ton (very good sort of northern bleached softwood), a year ago: a handsome return thanks! The Finnish FOEX index hit 883.80 dollars Thursday, March 18, en route to $ 900. It is rumored that this or that producer demand already $ 930 to its buyers, well above the record 906 dollars lost in May 2008, before the great recession strangle demand.
3 000 DOCKERS ON STRIKE
Men and nature have conspired to make the supply of pulp scarce, for three weeks now. On 27 February, an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 and the tsunami waves that struck Chile have cut short the country’s production represents about 7% of world supply. Neither Arauco WACC does not know when they will re-route their factories. The ocean has damaged one of ships located on the Pacific coast, the gas and electricity are still failing; ports are paralyzed. Contradicting Santiago, Chile’s capital, with the 3 000 Finnish dockers who rarefied pulp, as they folded their arms from March 4 to defend their redundancy payments and oppose outsourcing. Friday, March 19, the union AKT and the Association of Finnish port operators have accepted the proposals of the mediator appointed to reconcile their views. However, without awaiting the outcome of the conflict, the paper maker UPM-Kymmene had put in several hundred layoffs of its employees, its stock being filled to the brim. Resumption of exports, Tuesday, March 23 at the latest. “But the upward trend does not date from February, Paul-Antoine Lacour, general delegate of the French Federation of Producers of pulp. From the demand side, China is importing heavily resumed its purchases more quickly than expected. On the supply side, producers arrested factories at the height of the crisis, either temporarily for several weeks, as final. “
The recovery is there, as evidenced by the continuous rise in prices of pulp for eleven months. “It is free, but some trompe l’oeil, said Paul-Antoine Lacour. For example, in France, paper production increased by 5% compared to January 2009, but it must be remembered that it had decreased by 12% during the year 2009. It is therefore a partial adjustment. “
UPM has benefited from this favorable balance of power to announce an increase of 15% of its A4 sheet in the second quarter.
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