Deinking Sliding Downward

Don't expect many office grades to rebound this month. Following an impressive run up in prices over the past six months, coated book stock, sorted white ledger, manifold white ledger, office pack grades and a number of other deinked grades are posting sharp declines this month.

For the most part demand remains good, with movement still steady. However, a number of vendors note several large buyers of the grades are looking to push prices for these grades back down. Several paper stock dealers point out that a handful of Canadian paper mills are looking to knock down the price, which, at least initially, appears to be working. At the same time there is some decline in export demand for some office grades.

Any decline in prices follows a rapid increase in the price through the beginning of this month that pushed the cost of some grades up around 100 percent.

Although some deinking grades are dipping back down, pulp prices continue to improve, with reports that an additional $50 a metric ton increase is slated for next month.