The trend of the coated paper market fluctuated slightly during the first quarter. Thanks to the rapid decline in pulp prices and the strong willingness of paper mills to hold up prices, the profitability of the coated paper industry gradually recovered in the first quarter. In the second quarter, upstream pulp prices may still have room to decline. With the off-season of the industry coming, the profitability of the coated paper industry may remain low, and market volatility will weaken.
In January, due to the Spring Festival, the paper mills’ quotations during the month were mainly stable, and there was no obvious adjustment. Traders also shipped along with the market, and the market was often closed during the Spring Festival. In February, the enthusiasm of paper mills to raise prices increased, and a price increase letter was announced within the month. With the release of the signal of publishing bidding orders, the demand side showed signs of recovery. In addition, the phenomenon of production and sales inversion continued. In order to improve profitability, some paper mills actively promoted the implementation of orders during the middle and late ten-day period, and raised the shipment price; after the paper mills raised prices, dealers also followed up slightly to ensure their own profitability, thus promoting the emergence of the market center of gravity move up. The market returned to stability during March. During the month, some paper mills mainly delivered publications and moderate party building orders, so most of the paper mills operated stably; however, social orders performed poorly, and some of them reported that export orders were not performing well. In order to promote For single shipments, some traders in South China have loosened their shipment prices within the month.
According to the data monitoring of Zhuo Chuang Information, the start-up level of the art paper industry will gradually increase in the first quarter of 2023, and the start-up level in January is relatively low, because it is related to the maintenance of some paper mills during the Spring Festival that month. Production began to resume in early February, and with the release of some publishing bidding and party building orders, paper mills maintained relatively stable production, and by the end of March they were above the level of the same period last year.
From the perspective of inventory, the inventory level of c2s art paper has been rising since last year, and dealers tend to be more cautious in stocking up, and give priority to digesting existing inventory after some phased purchases. Terminal procurement is also biased towards rigid demand. The expansion of the online reading mode of new media still has a certain impact on the demand for traditional paper reading. Therefore, the number of orders received by some printing factories has decreased compared with the previous period, thus restricting their enthusiasm for purchasing base paper. According to the data monitoring of Zhuo Chuang Information, as of the end of March, the inventory of coated paper companies increased by 15.40% year-on-year, restricting paper prices.
Post time: Jun-12-2023