Paper, ink manufacturers increase prices

Sappi Europe has increased prices of all of its packaging and speciality paper grades by 7%-11%, valid for deliveries from 1 April 2021.

In a statement, the paper manufacturer said, “Sharply rising input costs, particularly relevant to pulp and energy in combination with very high freight rates due to global logistic constraints make price increases unavoidable.”

In January the company had announced an increase to the price of its coated and uncoated wood-free paper grades by 8%-10% across Europe. This increase, on sheets and reels, was due to be implemented “by 1 March at the latest”.

Independent German paper mill Feldmuehle is increase prices for its wet strength label papers by 8% from April. In a statement, it said, “After a long period of stable prices, Feldmuehle had been under severe pressure and had to decide in favour of this step. Due to the continuous and significant increases in raw materials, energy, and logistics costs a price increase for all wet strength label paper qualities is inevitable.”

The company said the increase would be effective on all new orders with deliveries from 1 April 2021.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi HiTec Paper Europe, a German subsidiary of Japanese company Mitsubishi Paper Mills, said a 5% price increase will apply to deliveries of its entire Jetscript range of coated inkjet papers from 1 May 2021.

It attributed the rise “to the permanently increasing costs for logistics and raw materials, especially pulp” and said customers would be contacted directly by the Mitsubishi sales team.

Other recent paper price increases have been announced by Crown Van Gelder and Sun Chemical.

Separately, Flint Group Packaging said it intends to increase the prices of its ink and coating products, also effective as of 1 April 2021.

The company said it is facing “an extraordinarily turbulent set of supply chain conditions, exacerbated by the global pandemic” and that its costs are increasing and supply is tightening across almost all procurement categories.

Flint Group Packaging Inks president Doug Aldred said: “The unusual set of supply chain conditions currently witnessed are some of the most severe I have seen. Our business is facing substantial cost and availability headwinds, across multiple raw material categories. Resins, solvents and pigments, including titanium dioxide, are particularly problematic.”

The company said it continues to collaborate with all of its global supply chain partners in order to mitigate as many negative effects as possible. However, recent upstream force majeure announcements and the acute global freight imbalance is impeding some of its corrective actions.

(Courtesy: PrintWeek.com)