Copacel published, on 27 January, the French paper and board production forecast for 2022 which, overall, is down 3.7% compared to 2021, to 7.08 Mt (7.35 Mt in 2021). All grades are down, except for hygiene papers, which are up 3.8% to 847,400 t (+30,700 tonnes). Once again, the biggest drop was in graphic papers (-9.8%). Only 1.18 Mt were produced in 2022 (- 128,200 t). Papers and boards for packaging are also struggling, although to a lesser extent, with a drop of 3.3% and 4.68 Mt produced (- 157,800 t). In detail, while corrugated case material (CCM) held up well overall (- 2.5% to 3.83 Mt), cartonboard plummeted by 15.2% to 578,600 t, a result that can be explained in particular by the shutdown of RDM’s machine at Blendecques for much of the year. On the other hand, flexible packaging paper increased by 20% to 269,800 tonnes. Other papers (speciality, technical, etc.) fell by 3.7% to 373,100 t. Finally, pulp production and consumption of paper and board for recycling were also down, by 3.6% (1.55 Mt) and 5.1% (4.98 Mt) respectively.
V. L.
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