Paper Outlook — Another Notch in the Market's Belt

Creel reports that groundwood products is where she encounters availability issues. "I would also state that grade 3 and grade 4 products seem less available, and are requiring more lead time to purchase than in the past," she remarks.

Hayes blames the rise in prices and tightening availability on the strong U.S. economy, and the growing Asian and European markets. "The reason for the tight paper market has to do with a strong global economy. Generally, all three of the major paper markets—Europe, the Americas and East Asia—are all experiencing strong economic growth. In addition, there has not been any significant capacity expansion on the grades used by our customer base," he explains.