Raw materials significantly more expensive: paper production costs explode

Raw materials significantly more expensive
Papermaking costs are skyrocketing

Difficult times for print shops and publishers: The production of newspapers and brochures has declined in recent years. The waste paper is now missing in the factories. In addition, raw materials are scarce due to the corona pandemic. The result is sharp price increases.

In view of delivery bottlenecks as a result of the Corona crisis, there are massive price increases on the paper market. Above all, raw materials such as waste paper or cellulose, which are necessary for paper production, rose in price “above average”, according to the Federal Statistical Office. In September 2021, wholesale prices for mixed recovered paper more than tripled with a plus of 222 percent compared to the same month last year.

Paper and cardboard residues were recently 147 percent more expensive in wholesale. Waste paper imported from abroad also cost significantly more: import prices were 75 percent higher than in September 2020. Wood and cellulose, which, according to the Federal Office, is also an important raw material for paper production “from toilet paper to writing paper”, cost just short of import 46 percent more than in the same month last year.

According to the Federal Office, one reason for the lack of high-quality waste paper, which is required for certain printed products such as newspapers, is the decline in the production of so-called graphic paper for printing, writing and copying for years. In 2010, 6.62 million tons of such paper were produced in Germany – in 2019 it was 23.4 percent less with just 5.07 million tons.

“After the outbreak of the corona pandemic, when hardly any event flyers were needed and companies had less advertising material printed, production fell again in 2020: by 11.5 percent compared to the previous year to 4.49 million tons,” explained the statisticians. Overall, this means a decrease of almost a third (32.2 percent) within ten years.

Newsprint production has been declining for years

At the same time, the print publishers have reduced the number of newspapers, the Federal Office continued. As a result, the production of newsprint has also decreased. With 1.47 million tons, 42.6 percent less newsprint was produced in Germany in 2020 than in 2010. This paper is now missing for recycling.

However, there has been an increase in the production of packaging paper and cardboard in recent years. According to the Federal Office, for example, so-called corrugated paper, which is made from waste paper and used for padding packaging and cardboard boxes, was still producing 1.61 million tons in Germany in 2010. In 2020 it was already 4.36 million tons – an increase of a good 170 percent.

Since a large part of the raw materials required for paper production is imported into Germany, rising raw material prices and greater demand, especially for packaging and cardboard boxes, have also caused producer prices for certain paper products to rise significantly. For corrugated paper, for example, they increased by 78.5 percent compared to September 2020.

For consumers, however, the significant price increases at the upstream economic levels “have so far only reached a comparatively small extent,” the statisticians explained. Paper products such as printer paper or exercise books were accordingly 4.5 percent more expensive in September than in the same month last year. Overall consumer prices rose by 4.1 percent in the same period.

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