Market Report

Price increases to improve profitability paper and board mills

NL-Tilburg, 16 August 2026

US producers of (recycled) liner board are reporting a tight market and have announced price increases of $140 per ton for (test) liner and fluting. If this increase were to go ahead, it would, according to Fastmarkets, represent a rise of $240 per ton over a period of seven months. This would represent a steeper price rise than the total of $220 per ton seen during the Covid pandemic. If it took three increases to achieve a $100 rise, isn’t it a little too optimistic to think that a $140 increase could now be achieved in one go?

The reason given is that, since the start of 2025, as much as 3.9 million tons have been taken out of production – whether permanently or not – with further shutdowns on the horizon. Apparently, in a market characterized by global overcapacity, this is the only way to achieve decent selling prices. But whether those price increases will then offset the costs of production stoppages . . .  Downtime also have the advantage of requiring fewer raw materials, so that could potentially be a benefit when purchasing recovered paper.

However, there is no indication of this yet, as just at the start of this month, prices for certain cardboard grades recovered paper in the US rose, both for export and domestically. This is hardly surprising, as what is not produced due to all these production stoppages is also not collected. The recovered paper sector has certainly noticed this.
On balance, therefore, the price increase will not offset the losses caused by the production stoppages, unless the surplus is removed from the market through the permanent closure of excess capacity. Even then, further action will be required, as, in addition to the planned production closures, the construction or conversion of new capacity is still in the pipeline.

Looking at the paper and board market across Europe, there are hardly bright spots. The tissue sector, which used to be a mainstay, is also experiencing a decline. The situation is much the same in the graphic paper sector, although there appears to be some positive momentum in SC paper, according to Euwid; however, this does not alter the fact that the decline is simply continuing there. Pulp sales fell in comparison with last year, whilst stocks in European ports rose. As far as corrugated board mills were concerned with attempting to raise prices, there remains considerable doubt about its succes. The market does not yet seem able to tolerate it. And whilst the (virgin) folding boxboard sector saw some prospect of reducing overcapacity through the closure of the two Folbb mills, this has been partly offset by the restart of Eerbeek (NL). The fact is that even a permanent closure of the two mills would not have eliminated the overcapacity from the market.
That prospect of capacity reduction also applied to newsprint, with the plans of Palm UK to convert to testliner. The news has not yet reached everyone and it was already announced that UPM has plans to start producing newsprint at its mill in Irvine (Scotland). Currently, 235,000 tonnes of LWC are still being

produced there. The news will have surely been welcomed by newspaper printers in the UK, as it appears that newsprint will continue to be produced locally after all. The impact on the newsprint market is less significant, although some LWC capacity is being phased out. As for the waste paper market, however, the situation remains unchanged from last week: Caledonian does not (yet?) consume recovered paper but wood as its raw material.

And what about the wider European waste paper market? Whilst our sector – and also the general waste sector as a whole – is being plagued by an increasing number of fires, we saw this week some minor CIF price improvements for certain cardboard grades to a few Asian destinations, which were then offset by higher transport costs. So, there is little to get excited about there for the time being. Exporting middle grades recovered paper has become more difficult due to the rise in local European prices. In short, a sort of status quo in which all sorts of factors – but above all the challenges in the transport sector – are linked to recovered paper prices like communicating vessels. For how long? Yes, that is the question.

Price indication

Price indication in Europe for low grades of recovered paper, sorted, baled and ex works are now between € 60 and € 80 per tonne. These prices are depending on quality, available volume, region and loaded weight.

Look here at the Price chart >> 
  
The price chart gives an indication of the price  of mixed paper, separately collected, in the Netherlands free delivered mill over the last 10 years.
Scrolling over the top of the columns gives the exact price indication in Euro's per ton.