COVERAGE NOTE: Changes to China Pulp coverage in PPW and WPM Table 5

Following market consultation and as previously announced, Fastmarkets RISI has made the following changes to its China pulp assessments in PPI Pulp & Paper Week and World Pulp Monthly Table 5.

• The previous effective list and net price assessments for North American exports of NBSK CIF China, published in PPI Pulp & Paper Week and World Pulp Monthly Table 5 (price IDs 699 and 12162), have been discontinued;
• These have been replaced with net price assessments for NBSK from North America and Scandinavia, as published in PPI Asia (price ID 1218);
• World Pulp Monthly forecasts of NBSK CIF China are also now based on these price assessments;
• World Pulp Monthly has also switched to using PPI Asia’s price assessments for Bleached Eucalyptus Kraft and Radiata Pine CIF China (price IDs 1217 and 1226) in Table 5 and in forecast data.

The move forms part of a wider rationalization of Fastmarkets’ China pulp assessments. As of January 1, 2020 PPI Asia will be the source of all China pulp assessments in WPM Table 5 and PPI Pulp & Paper Week.

Fastmarkets RISI held a consultation on moving to net price assessments in April 2019. This was followed in September 2019 with a consultation on the move to using PPI Asia assessments in all publications. During this consultation, no negative written feedback was received. Based on this, we announced our decision to proceed with the proposals at the end of September 2019.

Regarding the NBSK price assessments, Fastmarkets RISI acknowledges that Canadian NBSK generally commands a premium over European NBSK. We will include a footnote in PPI Pulp & Paper Week and World Pulp Monthly Table 5 indicating the current trading levels of Canadian and Scandinavian NBSK respectively. We will review this footnote regularly.

Fastmarkets RISI has prepared a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to guide customers through the rationalization of China pulp assessments. To view the FAQs, please see here.

For comments or queries, please email pricing.risi@fastmarkets.com, mentioning “Rationalization China Pulp” in the subject line of the email. Customers can also contact us at this email address to get historical price comparisons.

For more information on Fastmarkets RISI’s methodology for global pulp, please see here.

For other Fastmarkets RISI coverage notes please see here.