Paper production declined marginally in Europe during 2014: CEPI

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The latest statistical report published by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) indicates that the paper and board output by the European region dropped marginally during 2014.

Paper and board production in Europe has declined slightly by 0.2% in 2014 to total 91.1 million metric tons. CEPI indicates that the drop in production slowed down during the year when compared with the previous years. The paper and board production by the region had dropped by nearly 4% between 2010 and 2013. Packaging grade paper constituted 47.5% of the total production, followed by graphic grades (40.5%), sanitary and household papers (7.7%) and specialty grades (4.3%).

The grahic paper output continued to decline in 2014 as well. On the other hand, 2014 reported increased volumes of hygiene paper. CEPI notes that European paper mills consumed 47.5 million metric tons of recovered fibre during the year. The highest consumption of recovered fibre was reported by German mills, followed by mills in France.

Meantime, the region’s paper and board consumption rose 0.9% to total 77.1 million metric tons in 2014. This is the first time that consumption rates have shown increase after declining for three years in a row. Also, paper and board exports to non-CEPI destinations dropped significantly during the year.

The rise in imports led to negative trade balance figure for European region in 2014. However, exports by CEPI countries exceeded imports by 14.0 million metric tons, slightly lower when compared with the 14.8 million metric tons excess exports during 2013.