Resolute Forest Products announces Feb. 1 paper-pulp list prices for North America, to US$790/tonne for northern and southern hardwood; softwood plans unchanged with NBSK at US$900/tonne, SBSK at $860/tonne

Diane Keaton

LOS ANGELES , February 1, 2013 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) – Resolute Forest Products today announced Feb. 1 price plans for North America for its paper-grade pulps, according to buyer information.

Resolute’s new prices are US$790/tonne for aspen-grade northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) and southern bleached hardwood kraft.

Resolute is keeping its announced Jan. 1 prices for softwood pulp, including $900/tonne for northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) and $860/tonne for southern bleached softwood kraft (SBSK).

In its notice to customers today, Resolute did not state the amount of its hardwood pulp increases.

Its February NBHK price of $790/tonne is the same as Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. announced on Jan. 25. This is just $5/tonne less than what Resolute, Al-Pac and others had announced for January, up $30/tonne.

But industry sources said January prices did not increase $30/tonne but rather more in the $10-$20/tonne range, depending on the deal. On Jan. 31, RISI Inc. said January prices rose $15/tonne,with aspen-grade NBHK at $770/tonne and SBHK at $760/tonne. Meanwhile, in recent months, Resolute has been announcing the same price for both NBHK and SBHK.

Montréal-based Resolute produces approximately 1.7 million tonnes/year of market pulp at its eight facilities in North America, including its acquisition in early 2012 of Fibrek Inc.

Resolute is one of only a few North American producers of all four major paper-grade pulps: NBSK, SBSK, NBHK, and SBHK. Resolute also produces fluff pulp in Coosa Pines, Alabama. The Fibrek acquisition includes an NBSK mill and two recycled kraft pulp (RKP) mills.

In late November 2012 Resolute indefinitely idled its 200,000 tonnes/year NBSK mill in Fort Frances, Ontario. At the time, it also idled its 105,000 tonnes/year PM No. 5 in Fort Frances, which produced groundwood specialty printing papers.

* 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.