July to Sept 2019

Pulp capacity & price changes

•CMPC CEO mentioned studying possibility of downtime extension in Q3 due to current low pulp prices (RISI, 11 Sep 2019)

•Producers’ inventory in July declined by 1 day, to 52 days of supply – hardwood inventory dropped by 1 day from June (to 63) and softwood inventory declined by 3 days (to 40). (PPPC Report, Aug Report)

•APP unplanned downtime for 12 days (15-26 Aug) at Oki mill, cutting production by 100kt (RISI, 16 Aug 2019)

•Suzano informed the market of its intention to trim about 750kt of BEK in 2H19. This tonnage is equivalent to about 13.6% of Suzano’s half-year pulp capacity. Suzano did not detail exactly how it will work to limit productions, but its CEO Walter Schalka said that it will involve longer downtime and lower operating rates. (RISI, 20 Aug 2019)

•UPM announced its 2.1mt BHKP mill near Paso de los Toros city, central Uruguay, to start by 2H 2022 (RISI, 26 Jul 2019)

Paper capacity & price changes

•India - JK Paper planning to restart Sirpur mill in later 2020, targeting to produce 136,000 tonnes/yr - focus on cup stock and printing and writing paper. (RISI, 22 Aug 2019)

•A number of US producers, including Domtar and Packaging Corp of America, alleged that Indonesian paper manufacturer had exported sheeter rolls from Indonesia to the US for conversion, and have filed a request with the US Department of Commerce to investigate this circumvention of the existing ADCVD. (RISI, 9 Aug 2019)

•Shandong Bohui has switched (Zibo mill) recycled containerboard machine to uncoated fine paper (UFP) production (RISI, 5 Aug 2019)

•Malaysia – India’s BILT confirms Malaysian pulp, UFP subsidiary SFI in receivership - SFI, can produce 160,000 tonnes/yr of uncoated woodfree paper and 240,000 tonnes/yr of bleached hardwood kraft pulp at its Sipitang mill. Malaysia’s Albukhary Group bidded at Ringgit 1.2 billion ($289 million) last year has fallen out.  (RISI, 2 Aug 2019)

•Ittihad UWF paper mill started production in mid July 19 (1,200 tonnes/day of UWF paper) - first printing and writing paper production facility in GCC region. (RISI, 25 Jul 2019)

•Due to the expected reduction in recycle / waste paper import – more Chinese producers are investing in UWF machine e.g. China’s Shandong Sun Paper Industry is planning to build a new 450,000 tonne/yr uncoated fine paper (UFP) machine in Shandong. This will push Sun Paper to be second largest producer (1.14 million tonnes/yr,) after Shandong Chenming Paper Holdings at 2.8 million tonnes/yr. (RISI, 19 Jul 2019)