<B>Mexican Market Slowing</B>

The Mexican market has been in a go-go mode over the past several years. Despite some hiccups over the past several years the Mexican market has been sharply increasing its intake of recovered fiber from the United States.

Recent trends, however, are pointing to slowing markets. Prices have dipped and orders are easing for shipments to the region. One of the biggest issues is the move by some Mexican mills to slow down payment for recovered fiber, especially old corrugated. While not shutting off supply, this ploy is being down as a way to curtail the flow of any additional tonnage to certain mills.

While the move has forced more OCC back to mills in the Northwest, the problems are expected to be short-term at best. Several paper stock dealers expect Mexican orders to pick back up early next year.

While OCC has been the biggest drag recently, several other grades which have been moving at a strong clip into Mexico are starting to ease back.