Paper Stock Exports Up First 11 Months

The export of recovered fiber is one of the bright spots in a mostly downbeat market. While exports overall have been somewhat muted over the past several months, the most recent statistics from the U.S. Commerce Department show that over the first 11 months of the year the export of recovered fiber from the United States posted a 3.1 percent increase from figures the same time the prior year. For the first 11 months exports stand at 34.924 million tons, compared to Jan.-Nov. 2000 figures of 33.853 million tons.

Although figures are up for the first 11 months, exports for November, the most recently reported months dropped slightly from both the previous month as well as from November 2000.

The strength in exports is being attributed primarily to an increase in imports of U.S. shipped recovered fiber to China. This country has been a very active buyer of recovered fiber. Over the past several months new mills have been opening up in the country, requiring increased amounts of recovered fiber.

While exports to China have been increasing, shipments from the United States to Canada, traditionally the largest consumer of recovered fiber from the United States, posted a steep decline between the last year and 2000.

According to recent figures from the American Forest & Paper Association, the export of recovered fiber to Canada dropped more than 20 percent between the two years. The biggest reason for the sharp fall off has been the sizable amount of downtime that has been taken throughout the Canadian mill infrastructure.

With demand for many finished products such as newsprint showing very little sign of a turnaround mills in both the United States and Canada have been taking significant downtime to bring supply and demand into balance.

As of early February, there still appears to be an excess of supply on hand.