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Fraser has announced a $2.00 cwt price increase on Synergy Bond, and a $3.50cwt increase on Genesis, Passport, & Pegasus grades.
Fraser also announced a watermark change effective immediately on Synergy Bond, replacing the “Chasing Arrows” “25% cotton content” with a straight Synergy Bond 25% Cotton Samples are on the way, please check with your CSR...
The Hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.... Snapple “Real Fact” #119
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Memorial Day |
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Surprising surge in orders causes uncoated paper market to turn from oversupply to shortage in a month. The North American uncoated free-sheet market has shifted from oversupply to extreme tightness in the last two months. Most mills in late March began placing customers on allocation and imposing temporary moratoriums on new business in response to the sudden surge in orders. This caught merchants and end users by surprise, setting off a scramble to buy enough paper, and bringing back memories of the last such period of market tightness in 1994-95. “This has not been an easy month,” one merchant said, describing endless discussions about order allocations and price levels. With the sudden tightening in the market, producers quickly announced a second round of price increases in late March, with effective dates stretching form April 1st. to May 3rd. Since mills are heavily backlogged through May, customers have not been able to order much paper before the latest increase. The sudden surge in demand followed a long three-year decline and then flattening in demand, in which monthly shipments during the past year have never seemed to fluctuate by much more than 1% or 2% . The wave of orders swamped mills, which began placing customers on allocation and announcing temporary moratoriums to rebalance their order books. Will the bubble burst? With mills booked out for the next six to eight weeks, most producers expect to implement the second price increase during the next couple of months. That would take the price of offset rolls for contract customers to around $650-$670/ton and possibly even higher levels for spot buyers. Some merchants, however, are skeptical the price increase will hold as the industry moves further into the slower summer period and several said the surge in orders was a “bubble” that could burst. Nevertheless, producers point out that even with the second increases, prices are not much higher than the breakeven levels for many mills because they were previously at record low levels. “The industry is basically recovering what it lost in 2003 and returning to price levels of 2002, but at that time those price levels were viewed as bad. No one knew how terrible bad could be,” said one mill executive. “You can count on one hand the number of times the industry has been in this kind of tight supply/demand situation,” said a 30-year industry veteran. “It doesn't happen very often in the paper industry.” Pulp & Paper Week April 19, 2004
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www.brownpaper.com — 800.221.4386 |
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May 2004 |
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7th |
