Newsprint price talks in Germany to continue in February

4 February 2016

Newsprint publishers say price targets pursued by paper mills are not appropriate for the German market.

Despite participants’ hopes of reaching an early agreement on delivery contracts in the standard newsprint segment in Germany, these were not realised in January. Publishers had apparently signaled they were willing to sign contracts soon, but then claimed that the price targets pursued by paper suppliers are not appropriate for the market.

In many cases there were now typical agreements for deliveries in January and February. Amid good capacity utilisation, some producers are said to have introduced interim prices that include a substantial mark-up. Yet paper mills have not been able to get major buyers to agree to annual contracts at these prices because the latter are expecting lower mark-ups.

The picture is somewhat different with regard to the negotiations in the heatset newsprint segment in Germany. Here, contracts have been signed for a relevant share of the volumes.

 

euwid-paper.com