Södra Raises Pulp Prices

October 24, 2009 by timbercommunity

Södra Cell is raising the price of both its softwood and hardwood pulps by USD 30/tonne from 1 December. This will take softwood pulp prices to USD 880/tonne and hardwood pulp to USD 780/tonne.

2007 started with a price of $ 730 per tonne of softwood pulp. The latest increase means that the price would go up by $ 30 compared to the closest previous level.

"We have experienced a strong market throughout the entire year, with a very good balance between supply and demand," commented Ulf Edman, president of Södra Cell International. "Suppliers and customers both have low pulp inventories at the moment and we are currently struggling to keep up with customer delivery requirements. At the same time, the Asian market is growing very rapidly with paper production increasing strongly."

Softwood pulp began the year at USD 750/tonne and hardwood pulp at USD 670/tonne. In real terms, however, prices are not as high as the dollar price indicates. "As we know, the dollar has weakened, particularly during the past two months," said Edman. "The price increases partially help compensate for the weaker dollar to some extent."

Södra Cell is one of the world's leading suppliers of paper with a production of two million tonnes at factories in Mönsterås, Morrum, Värö, Tofte and fell. Södra Cell has 1 850 employees.

http://www.sodra.com