Production of pulp, paper and board has suffered from an adverse economic context and long-lasting movement of destocking. The decrease in production in 2023 continues to be more pronounced even than it was during the Covid-19 pandemic, writes Cepi.
According to preliminary figures, production of paper and board in Cepi member countries decreased by 13 per cent to 74.3 million in 2023. Compared to the previous year, paper and board consumption fell by 15 per cent. This negative trend in production and consumtion was due to several compounding external factors, including a poor economic environment, long-lasting destocking at industry's customers and still high energy costs, Cepi says.
The decrease was reported in all paper and board grades. The biggest decline was registered in the graphic paper segment which lost almost 28 per cent in demand in 2023. "This can only partly be explained by longstanding trends towards more digital content, as destocking effects could possibly account for up to half of the decline," writes Cepi.
Production of packaging paper and board suffered from a slowdown in retail and e-commerce in 2023. The demand from these segments had reportedly reverted back from pandemic levels and consumption of packaging paper and board declined by 12 per cent compared to 2022.
Due to good demand in the private consumers segment (at home), sanitary and household paper appeared more stable with a limited 4 per cent decline in 2023.
Total pulp production in Europe declinedby almost 8 per cent. Cepi attributes the decrease to a high number of closures of graphic paper mills which were also producing pulp. The production of market pulp grew by 5 per cent in 2023 "as capacities went full speed and benefited from a strong demand from China," explains Cepi.
Decreasing production of recycled fibre-based packaging paper and board, and the closures of certain graphic paper mills, in turn impacted the consumption and utilisation of paper for recycling in the Cepi area which both decreased by 7 per cent compared to 2022.
