Many paper companies started the first round of price increases in the new year, and it will take time for the demand side to improve

Many paper companies started the first round of price increases in the new year, and it will take time for the demand side to improve

After half a year, recently, the three major manufacturers of white cardboard, Jinguang Group APP (including Bohui Paper), Wanguo Sun Paper, and Chenming Paper, once again issued a price increase letter at the same time, saying that from February 15th, The price of white cardboard will increase by 100 yuan/ton.
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“Although the price increase this time is not large, the difficulty of implementation is not low.” An industry insider told the “Securities Daily” reporter, “Since 2023, the price of white cardboard is still at a historical low, but it has shown a positive trend. , The industry estimates that there will be a large-scale price increase in March this year, and this round of price increase letters issued by many paper companies is more like a tentative price increase before the peak season.”

Tentative increase of white cardboard
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As an important part of packaging paper, white cardboard has obvious consumption attributes, of which the total proportion of medicines, cigarettes and food packaging is about 50%. Flush data shows that the price of white cardboard has experienced huge fluctuations in 2021. It once reached more than 10,000 yuan/ton from March 2021 to May 2021, and has since fallen sharply.

In 2020, the price of white cardboard showed an overall decline, especially from the second half of 2022. The price continued to decline. As of February 3, 2023, the price of white cardboard is 5210 yuan / ton, which is still at a historical low.
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Regarding the situation of the white cardboard market in 2022, Minsheng Securities summarized it with “overcapacity in the industry, pressure on domestic demand, and partial hedging of external demand”.

Zhuo Chuang Information analyst Pan Jingwen told the “Securities Daily” reporter that the domestic demand for white cardboard last year was not as good as expected, which caused the overall price of white cardboard, which is closely related to consumption, to fluctuate and decline.
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The above-mentioned industry insiders also said that while the downstream demand for white cardboard is shrinking, a large number of new production capacity has increased on the supply side, and some paper companies have converted white board paper production capacity into white cardboard production capacity. Therefore, despite the obvious growth rate of the export market, However, the situation of oversupply in the country is still very serious.

However, leading paper companies such as Chenming Paper said that although the export business of white cardboard has declined to a certain extent recently, with the gradual recovery of downstream demand, the white cardboard market may come out of the trough.
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Kong Xiangfen, an analyst at Zhuo Chuang Information, also told the “Securities Daily” reporter that with the gradual increase in market activity, the white cardboard market will begin to warm up and increase, but because the downstream has not yet fully resumed, market volatility is temporarily weak, and trade Businessmen are still holding a wait-and-see attitude.

During the interview, many people in the industry believed that the price increase of paper companies was a tentative price increase before the peak season in March this year. “Whether it can be implemented depends on changes on the demand side.”