Pricing Rationale: NBSK CIF China

Huge downtime mandated by the Chinese government and taken by paper and board mills across the country this month is expected to continue in October and onwards, prompting Chinese buyers to cut pulp volumes. Pricing for pulp imports has seen escalating pressure as a result.

On top of weakening demand, pulp futures prices have been in decline. In response, sellers cut radiata pine prices further this week, by $15/tonne, following a cut of $30/tonne last week in their initial offers for October shipments. The erosion is weighing on NBSK prices.

Suppliers have kept prices intact for NBSK designated for futures deliveries so far but are looking at lowering prices after the seven-day National Day holiday that begins on October 1. Non-designated NBSK levels have edged down, though.

The drop led to both Canadian and Nordic NBSK levels clocking in this week at $760-830/tonne, down from last week’s $780-830/tonne, with NBSK CIF China closing at $795/tonne, down $10/tonne.

 

What to read next
This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process. No feedback was received during the consultation period and therefore no changes will be made to the methodologies at this stage. This consultation sought to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market under indexation, in compliance with the International Organization […]
After a consultation period, Fastmarkets has amended the frequency of this price, following positive feedback from market participants and internal data analysis, which suggested lower spot liquidity and price volatility recently. Fastmarkets selects a publication frequency after considering the number of data points (deals, bids, offers, deals heard and assessments) that it can reasonably expect […]
The trade log in the rationale incorrectly identified an offer as a trade. The trade log has been corrected to: Vale, COREX, 170,000 tonnes of 62% Fe Brazilian Blend fines, offered at the June average of Fastmarkets’ 62% Fe low-alumina fines plus a premium of $1 per tonne, laycan May 18-27 (fixed-price equivalent calculated at […]
The publication of Fastmarkets’ MB-AL-0343 Aluminium P1020A spot premium, cif main Japanese ports (MJP) assessment for Wednesday April 2 was delayed because of a reporter error. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated. The following price was affected:MB-AL-0343: Aluminium P1020A (MJP) spot premium, cif Japan, $/tonne The price is a part of the Fastmarkets base metals […]
Fastmarkets is making clarifying changes to the names of six current pallet assessments (listed below) and adding 12 new pallet price assessments.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ Turkish steel scrap import indices was delayed on Wednesday April 2 because of a technical fault. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated. The following prices were affected: MB-STE-0416 Steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix) North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, $/tonne MB-STE-0417 Steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix) US origin, cfr Turkey, […]