Because of high production costs German containerboard producer Leipa has announced plans to increase prices. At the same time, the company wants to temporarily idle machines in reaction to low demand.
Leipa has announced plans to increase prices for its entire range of containerboard products by €60/t from 1 September. The company said it was unable to absorb the continued increases in costs for energy and white recovered paper grades, adding that further increases in the fourth quarter cannot be excluded either. This will mainly depend on the cost development for energy and the availability of white recovered paper grades, Leipa said.
Simultaneously, the company feels the need to curb production in reaction to the decrease in demand. Leipa will therefore idle its two paper machines for “several weeks in July and August.”
Other containerboard producers have announced similar measures: Hamburger Containerboard wants to curb containerboard production by 20,000 t in July as quickly rising prices for energy were making production economically unviable.
British DS Smith Group plans to take additional downtime from July to September in order to counter high production costs, too. These measures would reduce output by 20,000 to 30,000 t.
German producer Klingele will also take downtime, but in reaction to a difficult staffing situation due to Covid.
