Brisk order intake and lengthy lead times continue to shape the cartonboard market in Germany. Insiders made mixed comments about producers' ongoing attempts to institute a third price increase of€50/t. Recycled corrugated case material became another €30/t more expensive on the German market in May. Both brown recycled containerboard and white testliner now cost more. Prices had risen by less than the €50/t that producers had sought. Sources said that these smaller mark-ups reflect the fact that paper mills have accommodated developments in the recovered paper segment where prices had recently softened slightly. In the past, a downward trend in recovered paper prices had set the wheels in motion for buyers to put pressure on paper manufacturers. Paper producers were not mincing their words as mid-May arrived, though: supply remained strained, paper mills could sell more than they had and the buyers' attempts to lower prices would rather tend to elicit another mark-up. In actual fact, EUWID learned that producers were deliberating whether to raise their prices again in June. Such reports were few and far between in the second week of May, though.
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