A Mild Forecast
ttendees at the American Forest & Paper Assoc-iation’s annual Paper Week program, held in New York in mid-March, heard a flurry of statistical information, as well as commentary from various companies that forecast a mild turnaround for the paper industry.
In a general session that focused on the near-term outlook, most of the paper industry officials who spoke see a slow turnaround occurring later this year. During a general session focusing on the paper industry, John Weaver, president and CEO of Abitibi-Consolidated, Montreal, noted that while North American markets for newsprint should show some improvements over the next year, the greatest growth region is likely to be China and Southeast Asia.
At the same time, while the Pacific Rim has traditionally been a steady market for newsprint, this region is becoming more self-sufficient. A host of new capacity is coming online that should allow Asia to rely less on the shipment of newsprint from North America and more on newsprint produced within each Asian country.
Magnifying this point, a spokesman for the Chinese Paper Association presented statistical information showing that the growth in newsprint production in China was far outpacing other regions of the world.