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At the newly re-branded Fastmarkets’ Forest Products North America and International Containerboard Conference held in Miami, Florida, on October 14-16, industry leaders mapped out how pulp, paper, and packaging players must adapt to shifting demand, raw-material constraints, sustainability pressures and consolidation.
This year’s conference speakers emphasised that the future of the industry lies in integrated strategy.
From the ground up, fibre availability was flagged as a growing issue. Participants discussed how mills are managing supply, higher input costs and logistics bottlenecks. On the demand side, while consumption of graphic grades remains challenged, the paper packaging side is under spotlight — though with caution. Despite weak box volume growth, capacity rationalisation and innovation are shifting the playing field.
Executives cited that they have been increasingly framing their strategies around fewer, stronger customers, margin improvement and capital efficiency. For example, one of the main addresses by International Paper (IP) CEO Andrew Silvernail outlined a plan to drive its sustainable packaging business to a 20% margin by 2028, which involves permanent closures of containerboard capacity as well as converting and recycling plants, but also reinvestments in high-value assets.
Silvernail urged his team to stay focused on the long-term pathway, accelerating changes when needed and never losing sight of the company’s strategic goals. “The most important thing is to have the courage to keep at the strategy and not let go of it with the winds that are changing. It will not be perfect, but you got to stick with it. And to stick with it, you have to have conviction about what is the right thing to do to win in the market long term,” Silvernail said.
The conference keynote speaker Luigi Lazzareschi, CEO of Sofidel, mentioned that the two major challenges for the paper industry to grow in North America are high labor turnover and high cost of investments.
“It’s difficult to retain people … the turnover is very high, and the [employees’] loyalty is very low. … Another big challenge in the US is that the cost of investment is very high, even though there’s lack of supply [of tissue paper]. …So, we have low productivity and high costs,” Lazzareschi stated.
Unclear trade flows and tariff regimes remain a drag, especially for containerboard and recovered paper exports as well as pulp and paper imports.
Also, a standalone focus on capacity closures, growth corridors and expected tightness in 2026-27 gave attendees a forward-looking view of when prices might recover.
Technology and innovation focus. From automation in paper machines and corrugators to AI-driven process controls, digital tools were showcased as a path to cost-control, flexibility and competitive advantage during a discussion panel on October 15.
Also, a session on the “Future of e-commerce packaging” explored how consumer-behaviour changes are forcing packaging converters to rethink design, lightweighting and sustainability trade-offs. End-users and brand owners are asking more from packaging suppliers: lighter, more sustainable, digitally-enabled boxes.
Looking ahead, the market is entering a phase of adjustment. While the macro setting is weak, the structural responses — capacity rationalisation, fibre supply re-arrangement, packaging innovation — are well underway. For participants, the conference message was clear: align your business for resilience, not just recovery.
Interested in getting more insights like this first hand? You can register now to attend the Fastmarkets Forest Products Europe Conference 2026 in Barcelona, Spain.
Learn how to monitor packaging prices using cost and price indices and understand the underlying cost drivers, from material cost to labor, energy and more. Examples include cartonboard, liquid container and paper bag.