August European woodfree printing and writing paper shipments drop 3.1% from year ago to 1.232 million tonnes, with coated and uncoated down; year-to-date total falls 3.5%: CEPIFINE

Diane Keaton

LOS ANGELES , September 27, 2011 (Forestweb) – Forestweb Editor’s Note: A typographical error in the headline and text of the article about the July CEPIFINE statistics, which was posted on Aug. 29, has been corrected to show that the total July 2011 shipments were 1.199 million tonnes, not 1.272 million tonnes. The total July 2010 shipments were 1.272 million tonnes.

In August, European woodfree printing and writing papermakers delivered 1.232 million tonnes, for a 3.1% decrease from August 2010, according to statistics released today by trade association CEPIFINE in Brussels.

The year-over-year percentages have been dropping each month since April.

There were 949,000 tonnes of total deliveries to Europe in August, down 3.5% from August 2010. Shipments to outside of Europe totaled 285,000 tonnes, decreasing by 1.4%. The estimated European demand in August was 979,000 tonnes, for a 5.2% decrease year-over-year.

From January through August, deliveries of woodfree printing and writing papers totaled 10.248 million tonnes, falling by 3.5% from the year-ago period. Shipments to Europe of 8.138 million tonnes dropped by 4.7%, while exports, of 2.110 million tonnes, grew by 1.3%. The estimated European demand was 8.411 million tonnes, down 7.2%.

August year-over-year shipments of coated woodfree (CWF) paper totaled 627,000 tonnes, down 5.6% from a year ago, and uncoated woodfree (UWF) paper shipments totaled 605,000 tonnes, down 0.5%. The year-to-date CWF total was 5.074 million tonnes, down 4.4%, and the UWF total was 5.174 million tonnes, down 2.7%.

In August, year-over-year CWF deliveries to Europe of 487,000 tonnes rose by 1.5% (in contrast to the July-over-July drop of 7.1%), while exports sank by 23.4%, to 141,000 tonnes. Estimated European CWF demand of 493,000 tonnes decreased by 1.0% year-over year (in contrast to the 9.8% year-over-year decrease in July.

For the first eight months of 2011, deliveries to Europe totaled 3.864 million tonnes, down 4.9%, and deliveries to outside of Europe slipped into negative territory, decreasing by 2.7%, to 1.210 million tonnes. Estimated European demand of 3.917 million tonnes decreased by 8.3%.

August-over-August UWF domestic deliveries of 462,000 tonnes decreased by 8.2%, but exports of 144,000 tonnes jumped by 37.1%. Estimated UWF European demand of 486,000 tonnes was down 9.2%.

The cumulative 2011 shipments of UWF to Europe of 4.274 million tonnes dropped by 4.6%. But shipments to outside of Europe grew by 7.3%, to 900,000 tonnes. Estimated European demand for UWF of 4.494 million tonnes was 6.2% lower year-to-date.

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