Shortage of raw materials attracts industry attention

After the new crown epidemic, since the paper companies across the country have resumed production and resumed production, they have also presented the focus of the paper industry: the price of waste paper and corrugated cardboard has skyrocketed.

The paper mill's stocks in the early spring of 2020 were not digested by the downstream market in time, and the new crown epidemic broke out. The consumption of downstream end products decreased, resulting in the continued increase in inventory. Raw paper manufacturers have a backlog of inventories, and the demand for waste paper has decreased. The price of waste paper has been in a downward trend since several rounds of price increases in mid-February. Since March, the domestic epidemic situation has improved, the waste paper packing station has basically resumed work, and the amount of recycling at the residential end has also begun to increase, and the overall national waste supply has increased significantly. However, the overseas epidemic situation is still severe, the demand for downstream packaging paper continues to be insufficient, and prices have been lowered many times. In order to reduce operating costs, paper mills continue to adjust the purchase price of national waste, and the price of national waste continues to plummet.

Raw materials become a key element for upstream and downstream development

The supply of upstream raw materials to the sales of downstream products is indispensable for the entire industrial chain. The fluctuation of paper prices is also the result of continuous adjustment and change of the industrial chain. The role of waste paper in the industry chain cannot be underestimated.

The author learned that after the papermaking industry in Jiangsu Province resumed production and resumed production, papermaking enterprises that used waste paper as raw materials basically resumed production and resumed production. Due to the weak downstream demand, some enterprises choose to shut down to protect the price, or select some paper machines to start up. In addition, affected by the epidemic situation, the paper industry has problems in the supply of raw materials for pulp and wood chips, the difficulty in the smooth flow of waste paper raw materials, and the difficulty in product sales.

The problem of waste paper raw materials is a common problem faced by people across the industry. Ensuring adequate supply of raw materials is the basis for sound development of various industries.

What kind of thinking does the industry have about the price fluctuation of raw materials caused by the shortage of waste paper materials faced by the paper industry during the epidemic?

In recent years, the proportion of waste paper consumption in my country's paper industry has gradually increased, but the domestic waste paper recycling system is not yet mature, and there are scattered, miscellaneous, and small conditions. Many waste paper recycling bodies are self-employed or small companies. On March 3, 2020, the China Renewable Resources Recycling Association Waste Paper Branch published an investigation on the recovery of the epidemic. During the epidemic prevention and control period, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Fuzhou, etc., when traditional recyclers cannot return to the city on schedule The local waste sorting enterprises have played an important role in community outbreak propaganda and protection, clean protection, and resource recovery. They have made up for the lack of first-stage recycling, and also changed the composition of the front-end recycling team in large cities. Over the years, waste sorting enterprises have been working hard to continuously improve the quality of logistics and waste sorting management personnel, and actively cooperate with the government. Through these efforts, the mode of individual scattered operations in the national waste market has been gradually changed to form a large-scale renewable resource management company, with the main body of the enterprise running through the entire recycling chain. The government can purchase services with waste sorting companies, and the waste paper transactions on the residential side may be gradually banned. Paper-making enterprises can sign long-term agreements with front-end waste sorting and treatment enterprises to stabilize the quantity and cost of national waste supply. At the same time, because of the reduction of recycling links and more standardized recycling behavior, it will also reduce paper pollution and improve paper quality.

Another method is to find raw materials that can replace waste paper fibers to solve the urgent needs of the industry. On January 10, 2020, the "National Science and Technology Award Conference" was grandly held in the Great Hall of the People. The project "Key Technologies and Industrialization of High-yield Clean Pulping of Mixed Materials" led by Researcher Fang Guigan of the Institute of Forestry Chemical Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2019. The research on this subject has made the blended material higher in value and become a good raw material for papermaking.

Under the major issue of sustainable development of the paper industry, is there another papermaking raw material that can replace plant fibers? We will continue to pay attention.