Commercial paper imports fell by 55% in Covid year

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Paper import figures for the year to January reveal the full horror of the impact of Covid on print in Australia and New Zealand, with all volumes plummeting, and commercial grades down by more than half.

According to paper industry bible, Pulp & Paper Edge, Australia’s imports of printing and communication papers declined 36.8 per cent to total 312,000 tonnes over the year-ended January 2021.

Australia’s paper imports fell a huge 182,000 tonnes during the year. The third quarter was the worst, with volumes overall down by 56 per cent in July, 48 per cent in August, and 46 per cent in September, compared with the year before.

Lightweight coated mechanical papers – the stock used for magazines and catalogues – saw an unprecedented decline, down by 55 per cent in the year. Medium weight coated mechanical imports fared a lot better in relative terms, although they were still well down, by what ordinarily would be a massive 18 per cent.

Coated woodfree paper imports – typically used by sheetfed offset printing  – were down by more than a third, with 35 per cent less imported over the year.

Worst hit of all was uncoated mechanical papers – used for newspapers, directories and paperback books – with imports down by a whopping two thirds.

Most recently, imports totalled 23,000 tonnes in January 2021, up 7.4 per cent on the month prior. However, imports in January were a massive 45 per cent lower than in January 2020, the month before onset of the pandemic.

Pulp & Paper Edge forecasts that if the trends of recent months continue, some further declines will eventuate, before a likely flattening out in mid-year.

The situation in New Zealand is similar to the Australian experience, albeit slightly better, with overall paper imports for the year to January down by 28 per cent.

Coated mechanical papers had the sharpest drop, down by 44 per cent, with coated woodfree down by 24 per cent and uncoated woodfree down by 22 per cent.

The second half of the year was a shocker, with volumes down by 54 per cent in July, 53 per cent in August, 38 per cent in September, 42 per cent in October and 45 per cent in November. This would have been in large part due to the country’s biggest magazine publisher Bauer closing operations for four months, before it was sold to Webstar owner Marcury Capital.

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