As of: 09/21/2021 8:12 a.m.
Less paper has been produced for printing for years. In the pandemic, significantly less of it ended up in the waste paper. The result: prices are rising rapidly.
They are still rolling onto the courtyards of German paper mills: the trucks loaded with waste paper. But the frequency is continuously decreasing. The raw material recovered paper is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity: the price of recovered paper has risen by 70 percent since the beginning of the year. In August 2021, a ton already cost 170 euros.
Newsprint is made from waste paper; the proportion here is 75 percent. From recycled newspapers, posters, flyers and stickers, so-called graphic waste paper is obtained, which is specially made for printing – and that is precisely what has become scarce.
Thinner newspapers, less waste paper
During the lockdown, newspaper editions were significantly thinner. Many companies did not advertise. Brochures and flyers were also only produced in very small numbers. “Now the graphic waste paper is missing,” confirms Winfried Schaur, President of the Association of the Paper Industry. “On the other hand, a lot of graphic waste paper is also used to manufacture packaging paper and corrugated cardboard.”
The demand for packaging paper has risen sharply in recent years, which is due to the increasing online trade. “Conversely, the demand for graphic paper has fallen significantly as a result of digitization,” says Schaur. In this respect, the production of paper production is shifting to packaging paper.
Structural change in the market
The paper market has been undergoing structural change for years. The demand for the so-called graphic paper has decreased by 15.3 million tons since 2012. This corresponds to a minus of 44 percent.
The result: a sharp reduction in production capacities for graphic paper throughout Europe. Since 2016 alone, capacities totaling 8.2 million tons have been reduced. The current lower market supply with graphic papers is due to this structural change as well as some pandemic-related problems in the supply chains.
Publishers and printers are particularly hard hit
Ralph Hadem, managing director of the Frankfurt-based special printing company Color Connection GmbH, is also feeling the pressure on the market. “Standard papers already have massive delivery bottlenecks. Competitors are fighting for every ton of paper,” he says. The situation threatens to worsen from November. “Then the current small supplies are used up, and according to the paper wholesaler it is not clear how much is being replenished,” says Hadem.
The quality of the paper supplied also decreases. “The paper is much wetter than it used to be,” says Hadem. “Apparently there are no storage times for the paper. This is a big problem for us, as we can only process papers with a moisture content of more than 55 percent to a very limited extent.”
Demand rises, production lags behind
Not all buyers receive the guaranteed quantities – or they have to accept surcharges despite fixed deliveries at fixed prices. Anja Pasquay, spokeswoman for the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers, is watching the looming undersupply with concern. “Some paper manufacturers are cutting back their production in places – because the costs of recovered paper are too high and the sales price is too low in comparison.”
The purchasing and production costs of printers and publishers are increasing. And they will inevitably have to pass this on to the customers.