Tensions in the cardboard and paper market
Audio 01:47
The price of pulp, used to make cardboard, has increased.
© CC0 Pixabay / Contributor
By: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow
5 mins
The paper and cardboard industry is also suffering from the crisis into which the pandemic has plunged the global economy.
The sector is now all the more upset because it was already undergoing transformation when the Covid-19 appeared.
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Packaging cardboard, tissues or cups, all these products are made from virgin or recycled paper pulp.
It even made from vegetable fibers or old paper.
Materials whose price is very volatile, especially in recent months.
For paper pulp, in Europe, the increase was 10 to 20% between mid-2020 and early 2021, assures a trader based in Brussels.
In China, the increase is even more flagrant: a ton was worth 600 dollars in the middle of last year for a standard reference quality, it is now flirting with 1000 dollars.
Beijing has decided to no longer import waste paper for recycling since January 1.
The country therefore buys pulp directly, or recycled pulp.
Demand inevitably drives prices up.
For unsorted waste paper, that is to say the low quality used to manufacture packaging or cardboard boxes, the price has almost tripled in the last six months in Germany and Italy.
Hence the concern of Italian professionals who see supply difficulties and fear that prices will rise further.
Pulp victim of freight problems
One of the explanations is the increase in demand for packaging cardboard, especially corrugated cardboard, used in the shipping of parcels and therefore very popular since the explosion of online orders.
As with other raw materials, the cost of freight also weighs on the sector.
In recent months, due to the immobilization of container ships, prices have jumped: the price of a 40-foot container traveling between Asia and Europe is four times higher today than November: from $ 2,000 it rose to $ 8,500.
The largest producer of pulp based in Brazil, Suzano sounded the alarm last week and warned that there could be delays in delivery due to the shortage of suitable means of transport, delays that could weigh on the production of toilet paper in particular.
A rapidly changing industry even before the pandemic
Current tensions are further disturbing a sector which had already taken several turns in recent years.
The decline in demand for graphic papers, which are used to print newspapers in particular, has prompted many manufacturers to adapt, or even to reduce their activity.
The increased demand for plastic substitutes is fueling the demand for cardboard packaging every year, to name just these two examples.
"
It is a very volatile and very confusing market
", summarizes our interlocutor.
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