bvdm: 330 entrepreneurs discuss paper shortage and rising price burden on the printing industry
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For months, rising prices for paper and uncertainty about supply volumes and deadlines have been among the major problems facing the print and media industry. In numerous print and media companies, the shortages on the paper markets are causing alarming production hindrances. This uncertainty had broken out in emotionally heated contacts between customers and suppliers of paper. For this reason, the Bundesverband Druck und Medien e.V. (bvdm) asked Winfried Schaur, President of DIE PAPIERINDUSTRIE e.V., and Stephan Krauss, Chairman of the Board of the Bundesverband des Deutschen Papiergroßhandels e.V., to answer the questions of 330 concerned entrepreneurs from the printing industry, publishing houses and journalists from the business and trade media at its infoKompakt online event on September 9, 2021.
The questions from the participants ranged from the reasons for the turbulence on the markets to forecasts of developments in the coming months and fears that the production of packaging materials will become even more attractive in the future than the production of graphic paper.
Winfried Schaur explained that the 44 percent drop in demand for graphic papers (-15.3 million tons since 2012) had led to a massive reduction in capacity at production facilities throughout Europe (-8.2 million tons since 2016). Due to Corona, this development has worsened over the past 20 months. At the same time, demand for pulp in countries such as China has increased due to an improving economy and lower imports of recovered paper, he said. After all, recovered paper is not a renewable raw material, but follows in the cycle of the previous use of paper. This, however, had collapsed during the corona pandemic.
Stephan Krauss commented on the current situation, saying that some of the wholesalers' warehouses were still able to deliver, but were not able to compensate for the current bottlenecks and certainly not to replace the drop shipment business.
According to the two association presidents, particular price drivers are politically forced rising energy and climate costs. In addition, generally declining freight capacities (-26.9 percent from July 2020 - July 2021) are leading to a massive increase in logistics costs (+21.1 percent from July 2020 - July 2021).
The auditorium was particularly critical of the assumption that, in contrast to print shops, which had their purchasing quotas cut or were only promised delivery dates in a few months' time, large industrial customers had been supplied directly in individual cases - a suspicion that Kraus believes must be investigated.
Both Schaur and Krauss showed great understanding for the existential problems of their customers in the print and media industry. It also became clear that communication between customers and suppliers has not been optimal during this crisis. For example, it is difficult for print shops when contracts for 2022 are to be negotiated with customers, but no price and delivery trends can be given by the paper suppliers. Stephan Krauss therefore called for greater exchange between business partners.
All participants were aware that the danger of a further migration of orders to online business, especially in advertising, should not be promoted by disrupting the supply chains. This would also mean that the ecological benefits of printed paper would lose ground to the environmental impact of online media, to the detriment of the entire print value chain.
The event was moderated by Dr. Paul Albert Deimel, Managing Director of the bvdm.
