Market2Mill, the recovered fiber price report and benchmark from Forest2Market, Charlotte, N.C., will begin reporting sorted office paper (SOP) prices and market trends in June 2012.
Forest2Market recently announced that it would be adding mixed paper pricing and trends to the Market2Mill report in June. According to Forest2Market, Market2Mill will next add export prices.
According to attorney James R. McGibbon, who rendered the anti-trust opinion that paves the way for the addition, the inclusion of SOP prices in Market2Mill will have significant effect on the industry:. “There is very little transparency in sorted office paper pricing at present due to the lack of market reporting, and it seems quite possible that there are gross and unjustified discrepancies in prices of what are essentially commodity products,” he says. “Improved pricing data to both sides in a competitive market should lead to more accurate pricing based on economic factors of supply and demand, thus improving market efficiency.”
Launched in April 2011, Market2Mill covered DLK (double-lined kraft) and OCC (old corrugated containers). Forest2Market says it quickly accumulated enough data to split OCC prices into two categories: those traded under contract and those traded on the open market.
According to Barbara Hudson, manager of Forest2Market’s recovered fiber practice, this addition further establishes Market2Mill as the industry standard. “Our recovered fiber business has experienced strong and consistent growth,” she says. “We’ve doubled the number of products we report in just one year and increased the segments of the recovered fiber industry that we serve.”
She adds, “With the inclusion of SOP prices in our price report and benchmarks, document destruction companies will—for the first time—have the tools they need to compare their performance to, and improve their performance against, the market.”
Regarding the addition of export pricing to Market2Mill’s reports, Hudson says, “Export markets have been drawing high volumes of fiber away from the US domestic supply. The strength of demand coming out of Asia in particular has created a price differential between export and domestic markets. By adding export prices to our reports, Market2Mill subscribers will have a global picture of the market.”
Forest2Market says it expects to add export pricing to its Market2Mill reports in the second half of June 2012.
Market2Mill reports volume-weighted average prices derived from actual transactions submitted by subscribers, who use this to assess their performance against the market and develop forward-looking pricing strategies.
Forest2Market provides market pricing data and supply chain expertise to customers in the forest, wood products, pulp and paper, recovered fiber, lumber and bioenergy industries.