North American paper mills to gain on Japan tsunami

Paper Recycling  |  2011-03-15 09:03:25   |   By Paul Ploumis

The devastated Tsunami in Japan has hit the major paper mills of Japan. Nippon Paper mills, Mitsubishi's Hachinohe mill, Oji Paper's Nikko mill and Hokuetsu Kishi Paper's Hitachinaka mill are the most important ones got affected

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The devastated Tsunami in Japan has hit the major paper mills of Japan. Nippon Paper mills, Mitsubishi's Hachinohe mill, Oji Paper's Nikko mill and Hokuetsu Kishi Paper's Hitachinaka mill are the most important ones got affected.

It is estimated that there would be an annual shortage of 2.8 million tonnes coated and uncoated printing and writing paper, 552 K tonnes newsprint, 400 K tonnes kraft linerboard, 390K tonnes carton board, 94 K tonnes packaging paper and 59 K tonnes of SBS in the market because of this.

But as always, when something gets rotten, something else starts growing, here American paper mills are eyeing for an opportunity for a strong rebound.

The devastation in Japan could be an opportunity for some North American producers including Abitibi Bowater (NYSE: ABH) and Catalyst Paper to export newsprint and coated mechanical paper. There could also be an opportunity for export of containerboard and other paper and board grades until the mils in Japan come back on line.

There may be also downside for some suppliers of kaolin clay. Japanese mills import a lot of their coating clay from American suppliers including BASF (Engelhard), IMERYS, Thiele Kaolin and Kamin.

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