Paper Forecast — Calm Seas Ahead

"For the first time in over a year, we had more of our panel reporting that prices were stable than those reporting that prices were rising," he notes.

The rather dramatic turnaround in the NAPL's paper survey may be one of the first indicators that the upwards pricing spiral that printers saw from the middle of 1999 to the first quarter of 2000 may be coming to an end. "The spiral seems to be unwinding some, not that prices are falling—yet. They do seem to be stabilizing, and that's quite a change from the last five quarters," Paparozzi notes.