No agreement in sight on newsprint prices on German market

In the first half of January, the outcome of contract negotiations for 2011 on the German newsprint market is still not clear. After the talks had appeared to be making some real progress at last in December, customers say little else happened in the first two weeks of January. Buyers report almost unanimously that the talks are still "pretty much where they began". There is apparently still no agreement in sight on the two key issues such as pricing and price validity periods. Some producers report nonetheless that the negotiations are practically over.