German paper and pulp industry sees significant drop in production, sales due to post-corona slowdown, increased energy costs and digitalization trends; Die Papierindustrie reports production fell 14% in 2023 to 18.6 million tons:

March 1, 2024 (press release) –

The German paper and pulp industry, with around 46,000 employees, suffered a significant decline in production and sales last year. The race to catch up in the post-Corona years has stopped. The key figures for the industry are worse than they have been for a long time.

Berlin, March 1, 2024 - The German paper and pulp industry, with around 46,000 employees, suffered a significant decline in production and sales last year. The race to catch up in the post-Corona years has stopped. The key figures for the industry are worse than they have been for a long time. As the DIE PAPERINDUSTRIE association reports, production fell by around 14 percent to 18.6 million tons in 2023. It thus fell to its lowest value in the past 20 years. Sales fell by 13 percent to 18.8 million tons. Industry sales fell by 27 percent to 15.5 billion euros. The disproportionate reduction in sales is also an indication of significant price discounts at the expense of the company's profitability. The industry expects new impulses for the future, including through innovative packaging solutions made from paper, which represent a sustainable alternative to fossil-based plastics.

Especially for graphic papers, the decline in sales in 2023 was dramatic at 29 percent and significantly stronger than in the European comparison markets. Packaging paper and cardboard also had to contend with a clear decline in sales (minus 7 percent). The development was somewhat less serious in the smaller main grade groups of hygiene papers and specialty papers, with sales shrinking by 6 percent each. The president of DIE PAPIERINDUSTRIE, Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp, ​​CEO of the specialty paper manufacturer Felix Schoeller from Osnabrück, makes it clear: “Paper and cardboard are indicators of economic development. The declines in the two major areas of printing and packaging clearly show the current economic weakness and the difficult market conditions in Germany. Our competitiveness is suffering from the sharp rise in energy costs. We are now massively feeling the consequences of the hasty energy transformation and the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. Added to this is the ongoing trend towards digitalization, which is leaving increasingly clear traces, especially on printed products. Plant closures and machine shutdowns are the sad result.”

The slump of last year and the weak start to 2024 are affecting many companies, especially since volume development was already declining in 2022. High energy, raw material and transport costs as well as increasing planning uncertainty due to short-term political changes are also putting pressure on the industry in the current year. This is serious because the paper industry plays an important role in an industrial circular economy based on renewable raw materials. The association therefore urgently calls on politicians to simplify the bureaucratic and regulatory requirements, get the energy transition back on an orderly track and thus support the transformation of companies.

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