Since the beginning of the year, the price of paper has continued to soar. This raises fears of massive increases on everyday products such as notebooks for schoolchildren or toilet paper. Why such a surge in prices? Explanations.
Why is the price of paper rising?
As is the case with many products, the resumption of consumption after the Covid-19 related confinements caused a sudden strong demand, causing difficulties in the supply of raw materials and transport. Paper pulp, the raw material for paper and cardboard, cost last April 40% more expensive than the same period in 2019according to INSEE.
Wood was affected by these supply difficulties, which led to a scarcity of pallets to transport the products. The shortage of semiconductors has also had its part to play, delaying the commissioning of new machines to be used to manufacture paper. The rise in the cost of energy, gas or electricity, has penalized this industry, which consumes large quantities of it to dry paper pulp and run machines.
Added to this are specific problems depending on the type of paper: for newsprint, the rise in prices is partly linked to a drop in production, with producers abandoning this sector in the face of the drop in newspaper sales. On the other hand, for corrugated paper used to make boxes, prices are driven up by the growing demand for packaging boxes for e-commerce or for the food industry, which is trying to abandon single-use plastic. .
What are the consequences of this increase?
The rise in raw material prices inevitably affects retailers, and ultimately consumers. This inflation has an impact on a large part of the economy, from the press to hygiene papers, including food packaging and cardboard boxes of all kinds. In the long term, the sector fears a significant drop in consumption if the purchasing power of the French people drops too much.
School supplies
Concerning the sector of school supplies and paper manufacturers, the situation is particular since the selling prices are negotiated with large retailers in the fall for the following school year. Clearly, the price of notebooks for the next school year have therefore already been set at a time when the price of paper had already increased, but still far from current records.
Distributors have committed to increases of 12 to 15% in the purchase price of paper school supplies for September 2022, which could also raise the price on the shelves for the consumer.
The toilet paper
Last April, Michel-Edouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the supermarkets of the same name, had already warned that the price of toilet paper was going “increase considerably“. According to manufacturers, producing toilet paper is indeed about 20% more expensive than before the pandemic.
But the price increases will probably be lower, it is estimated in the sector. Unlike newsprint or cardboard, which are sold to companies to be transformed again, toilet paper is sold directly to distributors, therefore to the final consumer, which makes price increases more difficult to pass on, he explains. -he. It is also a basic necessity product: price negotiations could therefore be tense.