Major price rise for paper in New Zealand

Spicers Paper announces a price rise for New Zealand and warns of more to come.

Andy Preece, general manager of Spicers Paper said that as of 1 March 2008, the company would be increasing the selling price of all commodity and selective specialty grades by 6.75 per cent.

"Upwards pressure on price has been building consistently," Preece said. He attributed the 6.75 per cent rise to a number of factors, including energy prices, global pulp and finished paper commodity prices, and exchange rates for the NZD, EUR and USD.

"The lack of mill profitability, capacity closures, relentless USD and EUR cross rate volatility and persistent input cost increases have given rise to numerous mill increases taking effect over the last quarter, the net impact of these factors being considerable increases in local landed costs of paper in NZ dollars," he said.

With this in mind, Preece warned of future price rises ahead. "There continues to be considerable potential for further upwards pressure in the latter half of 2008," he said.

According to one industry source, these rises are likely to be experienced in Australia throughout 2008. "There is no firm date but price increases are certainly on the move," the source said.

Another industry source said that while Australia was experiencing pressure, the rise in New Zealand did not necessarily spell a similar rise here. "Pricing in Australia and New Zealand do not run in parallel," said the source. "They've always been different from each other."