Paper Excellence announces price increase on NBSK and SBSK pulp, effective May 1

Paper Excellence Group (PE) informed North American customers its baled paper grade bleached softwood kraft (BSK) market pulp prices will increase, effective May 1, Fastmarkets has learned.

Richmond, BC-headquartered PE announced a northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) list price of $1,690/tonne. PE did not state how much that’s up, however it is $80/tonne higher than its last announced price.

On southern bleached softwood kraft (SBSK), PE announced a new list price of $1,620/tonne, market contacts told Fastmarkets. That’s up $100/tonne vs its last announced price.

PE Group, which includes wholly owned subsidiaries Domtar and Resolute Forest Products in addition to the namesake firm, was the only known paper grade BSK producer to announce May prices in North America through midday Tuesday.

PE last announced an $80/tonne fluff pulp price increase on April business, in addition to hikes on NBSK and SBSK in North America. This time, the firm didn’t announce anything on fluff. PE’s last announced list price on fluff in mature markets was $1,920/tonne.

In export and net price markets, PE is handling NBSK, SBSK, and fluff prices on a case-by-case basis, contacts said.

Until now, prior North American price hikes came from Brazilian producers Suzano, Eldorado, and Klabin on bleached eucalyptus kraft (BEK) as well as Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac) on northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK). The hardwood producers separately announced $80/tonne increases, effective May 1.

Paper Excellence Group has an estimated 3.276 million tonnes/yr of market pulp capacity in the US and Canada. That includes NBSK, SBSK, fluff pulp, southern bleached hardwood kraft (SBHK), bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp (BCTMP), and recycled bleached kraft (RBK).

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