Austria's paper industry records slump in sales and declining production in 2020

摘要

In the crisis-ridden year of 2020, the Austrian paper industry's output decreased, and the sector had to cope with a significant drop in sales. Now, against the background of good demand and well-filled order books, Austropapier was optimistic that the worst was behind the industry. In 2020 the country's paper sector manufactured 4.72 million t of paper (down by 5.3 per cent compared to 2019) and 2 million t of pulp (down by 3.3 per cent). Sales dropped to €3.6bn, a drastic 14.2 per cent decline from the record year of 2019, when sales exceeded the 4 billion mark for the first time. Against this background, the sector's performance has roughly followed the trend seen for the country's overall economy which registered a 5 per cent decline.The great variation seen in the past with regard to the development of the individual paper and board grades became even more pronounced during the crisis. Demand for graphic paper continued on a downward trend and registered a 13.5 per cent drop to 2 million t in 2020. Austria's packaging paper producers recorded further growth of 2 per cent to 2.4 million t, while the specialty paper industry recorded a 1.9 per cent drop in demand to 305,000t.