How the COVID 19 Pandemic Affects the Paper Industry

摘要

The world is not yet seeing the end of the COVID 19 pandemic that has hit the world by storm since late last year. Numbers of positive cases and deaths are still on the rise while governments around the world are scrambling to break the chain of infections in their countries. All industries in the world are affected by this pandemic, in either negative or positive or both ways. The paper industry has been affected in both ways. While some segments are affected negatively, there are other segments that are benefiting from the pandemic. In the graphic paper segment, demand-supply imbalance due to the pandemic is caused by reduced consumption in schools, offices and businesses; and transition to digital media from paperless communication, less print advertising, electronic billing, etc., which leads to the industry to resort to machine conversions into packaging and specialty papers. On a positive note, there is a solid packaging demand. Environmental concerns has spurred an increase preference for flexible paper-based packaging while COVID 19 outbreak has fuelled demand for food, medicine, medical equipment and other critical products, thus boosting demand for the industry's packaging solutions. The global paper and paperboard packaging market, which was worth USD199 billion in 2018, is expected to reach USD264 billion by 2026. E-commerce growth is fuelled by the pandemic, as consumers' demand for online grocery, beverage and Pharmaceuticals delivery services skyrocketed.