Arauco slates August pulp prices for China, re-announcing bleached radiata kraft pulp at US$710/tonne, dropping US$10/tonne for unbleached kraft pulp, to US$680/tonne, raising eucalyptus pulp US$10/tonne, to US$575/tonne

Diane Keaton

LOS ANGELES , July 17, 2014 (Industry Intelligence Inc.) – Chile’s Celulosa Arauco y Constitución SA (Arauco) has slated its August prices for China, an Arauco official said today.

The announcement was made July 15 and it is the first known pulp price announcement for August.

Arauco is re-stating its bleached radiata kraft pulp (BRKP) at US$710/tonne. This was its announced July price, which was up $10/tonne from June’s $700/tonne. The official said today that most of the July volume has settled at $700/tonne rather than $710/tonne.

For unbleached kraft pulp (UKP), Arauco’s August price in China will be reduced $10/tonne, to $680/tonne.

The new bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp (BEKP) price will be increased $10/tonne, to $575/tonne.

Arauco described the prices as net prices.

Capacity. Arauco’s pulp capacity is 3.885 million tonnes/year, including its 650,000 tonnes/year share at Montes del Plata, 2.885 million tonnes/year at its mills in Chile, and 350,000 tonnes/year at its Alto Paraná mill in Argentina, which can swing to either fluff pulp or BRKP.

(Arauco is a joint partner, with Finland’s Stora Enso Oyj, in the 1.3 million tonnes/year Montes del Plata BEKP mill in Punta Pereira, Uruguay, which started up June 6.)

Arauco also plans a $2.1 billion expansion and modernization project at its mill in Arauco in southern Chile. The project would involve the construction of a 1.56 million tonnes/year BEKP line and the closure of the mill’s existing 280,000 tonnes/year BEKP line, as well as the modernization of the mill’s 506,000 tonnes/year BRKP line.

As reported recently, Arauco switched the production at its Valdivia, Chile, mill to all BRKP starting in March, with plans to continue producing only BRKP there throughout 2014 and probably for some time beyond, and then to convert the mill to dissolving pulp capability, as well (500,000 tonnes/year; this corrects a typographical error in the original posting of this article), as of the first quarter of 2017. Previously the Valdivia mill was producing half BRKP and half BEKP on its two lines of 275,000 tonnes/year each, for a total of 550,000 tonnes/year. 

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