The meeting heard first from Mr Alfred Hirt of Sanne, Kruse & Pape GmbH, Germany, on trade to Asia which had picked up a little during the last three months. It had otherwise been flat in terms of pricing and tonnage. The difficult financial situation of Asian Pulp & Paper had improved to some extent.
In Germany, he said, important new capacity would come on stream in the second half of 2002 – 1.6m tonnes, mainly for test liner and medium with 500 000 tonnes for deinking news & pams. Since 1992, 18 mills had gone out of production in the United States, and Mr Hirt forecast that labour costs would lead to higher production in Europe, stabilisation in the US and increased output in the Far East.
Mr Hubert Neuhaus of Erich Bhm GmbH said that in Germany stocks were high, demand satisfactory and prices a little lower. Here, as in the rest of Europe, pricing was no longer following export values. “The competitive situation puts us under a great deal of pressure,” he said, “and the market could be stagnating.”
UK grades down 50%
Lower prices or the potential for decline were features of several European reports. In the UK, said Mr West, some grades had lost 50% in value in the last six months and the bottom had not been reached. Yet mill stocks were not high and merchants had little in reserve.
A report on the crucial United States market by Mr Steve Vento of Recycled Fibres International, read in his absence by Mr West, offered little sign of any short or even medium-term improvement in a grim market. Prices had declined again with woodfree deinking grades suffering most. But deink-news had held for the most part as collection was down a little and mill orders were constant. Overseas demand was weaker.
Mr Kleiweg felt the outlook in The Netherlands was uncertain, but if more of the US surplus was shipped to the Far East this would have a negative effect on Dutch sales in the region. In the longer term, however, the situation would improve because of new capacity being planned and built in Europe and the Far East.
For more information about the BIR meeting including the quality of deinking and discussions about price fluctuations: see BIR feature.
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