European decor paper producers take more downtime due to slowing demand

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In order to defend their prices against pressure manufacturers of decor paper curtailed production in April and May.

European decor paper manufacturers have seen their order intake weaken again in the past few weeks after a rather subdued first quarter of 2012. A number of companies noted that demand from decor printers and impregnators, in particular, had softened again since the end of March. Insiders do not expect any fundamental improvement from either sector until the second half of 2012 at the earliest.

Amid this backdrop, decor paper producers stepped up their production curtailments in April and May. Most businesses had already stopped their plants for several days over Easter, with a few facilities also going offline for up to ten days. Similar shutdowns took place around the 1 May holidays. Sources within the decor paper industry believe that additional stoppages will be held in the second half of May and in June given that order intake is still too weak.

These more substantial stoppages form part of efforts to keep decor paper prices stable as far as this is possible. These actions seem to be succeeding for the most part, at least in Central Europe.


⇒ This article is an excerpt from EUWID's report on the decor paper market published in EUWID Pulp and Paper no. 20.

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