In the past three months, there has been an obvious trend in the corrugated packaging industry —- although the RMB has depreciated significantly, the imported paper has depreciated faster so that many medium and large packaging companies have purchased imported paper.
A person in the paper industry in the Pearl River Delta told the editor that a certain kraft cardboard imported from Japan is 600RMB/ton cheaper than the domestic paper of the same level. Some companies can also get 400RMB/ton profits by purchasing through middlemen.
Moreover, compared with the domestic special grade A kraft cardboard, the imported Japanese paper has significantly better printing suitability than the domestic paper when the physical properties are comparable to the domestic paper, which has even led many companies to request customers to use imported paper.
So, why is imported paper suddenly so cheap? In general, there are following three reasons:
1. According to the pricing survey and market report released by Fastmarkets Pulp and Paper Weekly on October 5, since the average price of waste corrugated boxes (OCC) in the United States was US$126/ton in July, the price has dropped by US$88/ton in 3 months. tons, or 70%. In one year, the average price level of used corrugated boxes (OCC) in the United States has dropped by nearly 77%. Buyers and sellers say oversupply and pent-up demand have sent waste paper to landfills over the past few weeks. Multiple contacts say used corrugated boxes (OCC) in the Southeast are being landfilled in Florida.
2. As the world’s major importing countries such as the United States, Europe and Japan gradually liberalize the epidemic control, and cancel the subsidies for enterprises and individuals since the epidemic, the situation in which it was difficult to find a single container in the past has completely changed. The container freight from these countries back to China has been continuously reduced, which has further lowered the CIF price of imported paper.
3. At present, affected by various factors such as inflation, consumption cycle adjustment and high inventory, the demand for packaging paper in the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries has declined. Many factories have taken advantage of the situation to reduce the stock of paper, forcing the price of packaging paper to continue to decline. .
4. In China, because paper giants indirectly dominate the 0-level national waste market, they expect to increase the price increase expectation of domestic paper by maintaining a high national waste price. In addition, leading companies such as Nine Dragons have adopted the method of shutting down production and reducing production instead of the past flash-down method, in order to cope with the dilemma that the price increase of domestic packaging paper cannot be implemented, resulting in the price of domestic paper remaining high.
The unexpected collapse of imported paper has undoubtedly disrupted the rhythm of the domestic packaging paper market. However, a large number of packaging factories switch to imported paper, which is very unfavorable for the destocking of domestic paper, and may further reduce the price of domestic paper.
But for domestic packaging companies that can enjoy the dividends of imported paper, this is undoubtedly a good opportunity to attract money.
Post time: Nov-03-2022