Forest products forecasts

Amid record volumes of imports, the Brazilian paper industry has joined steelmakers in requesting up to 25% import tariffs for certain products, which has worried importers and end users. In the wake of the Brazilian steel sector’s pleas in 2023, the Brazilian Tree Industry Association (Ibá) requested on January 16 that the government increase import duties […]

Russia’s National Packaging Confederation (NKPack) expects the domestic corrugated packaging and folding carton markets to grow by up to 5% in 2024 amid economic uncertainty and rising geopolitical tensions. “We expect more modest numbers than in 2023, but nevertheless, we predict growth in production of corrugated packaging at 5% and for folding cartons of 3-5%,” […]

The Chinese pulp sector faces supply disruptions and market uncertainty as Canadian mills consider closures amid falling prices

In a marketplace with more than enough supply and unsettled demand, pricing for linerboard held unchanged for January, as major integrated mills lined up their Jan. 1 invoices for higher pricing of $70/ton on linerboard and $100-110/ton for corrugating medium in North America’s open market. Based on Fastmarkets’ PPI Pulp & Paper Week pricing survey, roughly one-third […]

The global recovered paper (RCP) market has been quite volatile for the past couple of years. After a strong upturn in 2021, the global market for bulk grades of RCP collapsed in the second half of 2022. Most regions found their bottoms at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, and the global […]

Price volatility in the Southern Pine lumber market eased markedly in 2023 from the pandemic-infused chaos evident in the three previous years. While most traders welcomed that trend, many lamented that the reduced volatility failed to make the market’s near-term shifts any easier to gauge. In fact, many veteran traders noted that coming trends were […]