Italian coreboard producer Cartiera Merati has announced a further price increase for its products. From 1 May, the company wants to charge €40/t more for all coreboard grades in both the European and overseas markets.
This step follows a first adjustment of ten to twelve per cent that already came into effect on 1 April, according to Cartiera Merati. The company attributes both increases to the urgent need to restore economically sustainable margins. The prolonged period of structural overcapacity had pushed selling prices to levels which were no longer compatible with the long-term health of the industry, it said.
The price increase announcement had also been compelled by the persistent escalation of operating costs, Cartiera Merati added. "Energy crises tend to generate inflationary effects that extend well beyond the duration of the crises themselves," the company explained. Producers' cost structure today was significantly higher than it had been only a few years ago, with little prospect of a meaningful reversal in the near term, it added.
