Wood fibre costs, the cost component that often determines a pulp manufacturer's competitiveness, fell for the first time in many years in practically all major pulp producing regions around the world in the third quarter of last year.
According to the 50-page market report, Wood Resource Quarterly, the drop was the result of two main factors: a strengthening US dollar against most major currencies combined with a reduced demand for pulpwood. The Global Average Wood Fibre Price is a weighted average of delivered wood fibre prices for the pulp industry in 17 regions tracked by the publication Wood Resource Quarterly. These regions together account for 85-90% of the world's wood-based pulp production capacity.The average global softwood pulpwood price fell two percent in the period, which was the biggest quarter-to-quarter decline since 2001. Even so, the average price was up 11% from 2007 and was 26% higher than two years ago. And, despite the fall, the price was still the second highest ever recorded since 1988 when WRQ started tracking global wood markets.
During the past five years, wood fibre costs have gone up in practically all major regions that produce hardwood pulp, including Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, the US South, Finland, Russia and Japan.
