In last two weeks, three major moves erupt that may resurrect North American UFS pricing, halt deep dive

摘要

North America's uncoated freesheet (UFS) paper market — where prices declined as much $75 to $100/ton in the last year on commodity grades and were anticipated to continue dipping — appeared reborn all within seven days from moves by North America's two largest UFS producers, International Paper (IP) and Domtar. The market catalyst move was by IP, which announced it would permanently shut its nearly 1 million tons/yr mill in Courtland, AL, a pulp-integrated top-quartile mill with UFS capacity of 765,000 tons/yr or 9% of North American capacity, contacts said this week. IP's shutdown, which will be done in two phases, with the first capacity removal by yearend and the rest by March, totals about 25% of its US UFS capacity.