Woodpulp port stocks in Europe increase 6.4% in April over March, drop 1.8% year-over-year: Europulp

Diane Keaton

LOS ANGELES , May 17, 2013 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) – European woodpulp port stocks gained 62,366 tonnes in April over March, or 6.4%, to 1,034,263 tonnes, according to Europulp data released today. This was the first time the port stocks surpassed 1 million tonnes since January.

The April 2013 port stocks decreased 1.8%, or 18,861 tonnes, over those of April 2012’s 1,053,124 tonnes.

Following are the country-by-country April 2013 figures, in tonnes: (respective April-over-March and year-over-year percentages in parentheses): Netherlands/Belgium — 400,683 (16.2%; 2.1%); France — 105,441 (14.3%; 17.8%), UK — 48,157 (3.6%; 28.7%); Germany — 140,047 (15.9%; -1.5%); Switzerland — 6,750 (21.4%; 20.8%); Italy — 285,289 (-7.4%; -11.1%); Spain — 47,896 (-11.4%; -26.4%).

Stats perspective. Inventories were below 1 million tonnes in March 2013 (971,897 tonnes), February 2013 (966,502), and three months in 2012, including November (920,856 tonnes, October (980,455 tonnes), and June (912,478 tonnes). June’s figure marked the first time inventories had fallen below 1 million tonnes since 2010 and all of the monthly stocks in 2011 were above 1 million tonnes before declining overall in 2012.

September 2011’s 1,460,219 tonnes marked the first time since April 2009 that stocks had surpassed 1.4 million tonnes, and in October, November, and December of 2011 they were in the high 1.3 million tonne range, before falling to 1.2 million tonnes in January 2012.

Data background. Europulp figures describe stocks by location, but the numbers are already included in producer and consumer inventory data.

Europulp represents the associations of pulp sellers in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.K. Europulp began including Spanish port stocks in its data in 2004, but its historical statistics for Spain revert back to January 2003. When Europulp began reporting statistics in 1999, it included only the Netherlands/Belgium, France, and the U.K.; the other countries have been added over the years.

As a result, it is not possible to accurately compare current data with previous years. That said, in the years since statistics became available in 1999, April port stocks, compared to those in March, have risen in six of the previous 14 years.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.