Prices stable on Japanese P&B market despite demand changes, shifts in packaging exports

摘要

The Japanese paper and board market has seen stable pricing over the first quarter of calendar 2021 despite the country's biggest COVID-19 caseload so far and a consequent state of emergency (SoE) in several prefectures. The wave has seen infections at several P&B production or processing plants (No. 3, p. 6). But contacts indicate that thanks to safety precautions and continuity planning, there have been no significant interruptions to production or deliveries. SoEs this quarter: Japan's third and biggest wave of COVID-19 infections peaked in mid-January, at which point SoEs were declared in Aichi, Chiba, Fukuoka, Gifu, Hyogo, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Osaka, Sairtama, Tochigi and Tokyo prefectures.