Paper

In H1 2021, the trade volume in the global corrugated paper box market totalled 1.9M tonnes, dropping by 5% compared to the same period last year. Despite that, it rose by 16% to $3.6B in value terms due to the average carton box price increased by approximately 23% to $1,882 per tonne. Germany, the U.S., the Netherlands and China remain the leading suppliers in the global corrugated paper box market, accounting for 41% of total export volume. The Netherlands, Mexico and France are the largest importers of paperboard cases worldwide.

Since China’s ban on recovered paper imports came into force in 2021, the U.S. offset losses from reduced trade with China by redirecting export flows to India, Thailand, Viet Nam, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia and some other countries. In the first seven months of 2021, American exports reached $1.9B, picking up +44% against the same period in 2020. India topped the ranking of major importers of recovered paper from the U.S., taking the place of the last year’s leader, China. Compared to other leading importers, Brazil recorded the highest spike in recovered paper purchases from the U.S.

Digitalization has put pressure on the world’s trade of printing and writing paper. Over the past decade, global imports of printing and writing paper dropped from 47M tonnes in 2010 to 31M tonnes in 2020. In value terms, imports declined to $27.6B. The U.S., Germany and France remain the largest importers of printing and writing paper worldwide. China features as the only county that boosted its paper imports last year. In 2020, the average printing and writing paper import price fell by -3.2% y-o-y to $899 per tonne 2020. Germany, Indonesia, Finland and Sweden constitute the largest exporters of printing and writing paper.  

China’s imports of wrapping paper, packaging paper and paperboard reached the highest level ever, picking up by +54% to 892K tonnes in 2020. Russia, India and Viet Nam constitute the largest suppliers to China. Last year, Russia and India boosted their exports to China threefold, while Viet Nam saw a 58%-spike in terms of volume of exported products to China. In 2020, the average wrapping paper import price dropped by -24.1% y-o-y. 

In 2020, European exports of household and sanitary paper articles rose by +1.1% y-o-y to 2.9M tonnes, which equated to $5.9B. Supplies from Germany, Italy, Poland and France constitute more than half of total European exports. Germany remains the second-largest exporter of household and sanitary paper articles worldwide and the prime supplier to other European countries. In 2020, the average export price for household and sanitary paper articles in the EU remained almost unchanged compared to the previous year’s figures.

In 2020, China increased its chemical wood pulp imports by +10% y-o-y to 24M tonnes. It was driven by rising demand for paper packaging and tableware amid the pandemic and further stimulated by a sharp fall in import prices last year. Brazil, Indonesia and Canada are the major suppliers, providing 57% of the total import volume. Bleached sulphate pulp accounted for 95% of total wood pulp imports into China. 

In 2020, the global baryte market fell by 15%, hampered by a severe decline seen in the oil industry, which currently consumes 80% of the total baryte output. India remained the only country to maintain 2019 production figures. While the oil industry is set to operate at minimum production levels in the medium term, alternative chemical, coating, and construction baryte applications may emerge as market drivers.

Paper waste exporters worldwide now have to shift their supply chains: China, a global key processor of imported waste, banned solid waste imports in 2021. Countries with insufficient domestic paper processing capacity will now be forced to develop these facilities, against the current global trend towards the circular economy. 

The global talc and steatite market was hit severely by the pandemic, with the volume of the global trade dropping twofold in May 2020 and failing to recover. The decreases in the printing paper and cosmetics industries challenge the talc market, being partially offset by rising demand from the plastics industry. China appears to be less severely hit by the pandemic than the rest of the world, which points out the Chinese downstream industries to buoy the expected slight growth of the global talc market.

Because of the pandemic-related shifts in downstream industries, pulp manufacturers are forced to correct their market strategies towards the rapid increase of the use of packaging paper. In the medium term, value chain sustainability emerges as the most important factor due to the tightening of environmental regulation.