The pressure on recycled graphic paper prices in Germany is rising, with capacity utilisation being average at best. It is not yet clear if producers will be able to rise prices from next year.
Suppliers of recycled graphic paper in Germany are complaining about tepid capacity utilisation on their paper machines as well as growing pressure from the virgin-fibre segment. They expect rising production costs in the coming year. However, from today's perspective, market experts see sellers having little chance of success of passing on the expected additional costs to customers in a price hike, at least for Germany and neighbouring markets. Instead, experts believe that 2017 will be another challenging year for the paper factories.
On the other hand, one producer of LWC has announced that prices - at least in the UK - for all short-term orders will be raised as of 1 January. According to representatives of the LWC segment, activity levels in the paper mills are good but fairly unimpressive for the traditionally very strong fourth quarter.
