SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2009 (RISI) – As producers around the world grappled with weak demand and an oversupply of pulp, the list of firms taking market-related downtime grew to include every grade made in the industry. According to a RISI poll, global producers curtailed more than 2 million tonnes of output over the last four months of 2008.
Producers slowed down production, closed mills temporarily and permanently, and altogether trimmed an estimated 2.191 million tonnes of output worldwide from September through December, according to the poll, which included the four key producing regions of North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
Softwood kraft downtime totaled an estimated 874,000 tonnes, while hardwood kraft totaled 1.153 million tonnes — mainly because several large Asian mills shuttered for most of the fourth quarter.
North American producers took the most downtime of the four major producing regions, with 21 companies shedding an estimated 853,000 tonnes across all grades of market pulp produced in the USA and Canada.
At least three Canadian producers of bleached chemi-thermomechanical (BCTMP) took downtime, and the grade was excluded from the softwood and hardwood tallies but included in the overall downtime total. In the USA, where much of the world’s fluff pulp capacity is located, three producers took downtime in the grade, included in softwood totals.
Pulp mill downtime also surged across Asia, where tepid demand and tumbling prices prompted several major mills to shut down for months at a time, resulting in 785,000 tonnes of mostly bleached hardwood kraft getting clipped.
In Europe, producers reduced about 360,000 tonnes of pulp production with much of it occurring in northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK).
Latin American producers took the least downtime of the four continents polled, with an estimated 193,000 tonnes of mostly bleached eucalyptus getting trimmed.
Industry contacts expect more downtime to occur before the traditional season of spring maintenance outages because papermaker downtime is so widespread the pulp producer curtailments haven’t yet eaten into the oversupply that’s gripping the industry.
For the latest update of worldwide pulp downtime, see www.risiinfo.com/portal/content/pulpDowntime.xls.
