China's paper and board industry stages comeback from difficult first quarter

摘要

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) informs that the country's paper and paperboard output in 2020 amounted to 127 million t, 0.8 per cent more than in the previous year. MIIT figures further indicate that the industry was significantly more profitable than in 2019 even as sales receded by 2.2 per cent. Sectoral earnings reportedly stood at RMB82.7bn (roughly €10.5bn), representing year-on-year growth of 21.1 percent. Development in the different segments of the industry varied widely. Last year's winners included, without doubt, the packaging paper industry. Producers of corrugated case material, who account for over 40 per cent of the total production capacity for paper and board in China, initially struggled with the challenges thrown up in the first quarter. China Paper Association (CPA) reports that output then increased from the second quarter. In the third quarter, it even exceeded the figure for the same period of 2019. Provisional figures put year-on-yeargrowth of the segment in 2020 at 4.5 per cent with output at 46.1 million t.