← External Forces: Industry Specific (all topics)
Writing paper & packaging board demand split
What it is
Writing and printing paper faces structural decline from digitisation, while packaging board grows with e-commerce, organised retail and the substitution of banned single-use plastics
The two use similar pulp and machinery but serve opposite demand trends
Impact on industries
- Packaging board demand is structurally growing, and single-use plastic restrictions convert regulation directly into paper volume
- E-commerce parcel growth creates corrugated and board demand that did not exist at scale a decade ago
- Writing and printing paper is in secular decline, and machines configured for it cannot always be converted to board economically
- Education and government printing demand cushions the decline but does not reverse it, so capacity rationalisation is the eventual answer