Wood fibre costs for the world’s pulp mills were down again in the second quarter of 2012. Prices for wood chips and pulp logs in both local currencies and in US dollars fell in most of the 17 regions tracked by the Wood Resource Quarterly. Source: Packaging Europe
Uncertainty in demand for pulp, lower pulp and paper prices, reduced market pulp production and a healthy supply of sawmill residuals were all factors that put downward pressure on wood fibre prices.
The Softwood Wood Fiber Price Index (SFPI) fell by 4.1% from the first quarter, this was the biggest quarter-to-quarter drop since 2008.
The biggest price declines for hardwood fibre from the first quarter 2012 to the second quarter occurred in Australia, Brazil, the US Northwest and Eastern Canada.
Hardwood fibre prices have fallen even more than softwood fibre prices this year.
The Hardwood Wood Fiber Price Index (HFPI) was down 4.4% from the previous quarter. The HFPI has now fallen for three consecutive quarters.
The largest price reductions from the first quarter 2012 occurred in Australia, Brazil and Russia.
Eucalyptus pulp log prices in the second quarter 2012 were down 28% from the same quarter in 2011, while pine pulp log prices declined 26% from a year ago.
Wood fibre costs were also down throughout Europe in the second quarter, with the smallest declines in Finland (-1.3%) and Norway (-3.6%) and the biggest reductions in Spain (-15%) and France (-7.7%).
In most markets, wood fibre prices have come back down to where they were in 2010.
