The battle for the British paper and packaging company DS Smith has entered the next stage. Mondi’s deadline on their DS Smith offer is now set for April 23rd, which is the same day as International Paper’s deadline offer. International Paper said it was still considering making an offer and believed that an acquisition of DS Smith was in line with its strategy to strengthen its corrugated packaging business in Europe. They expect the combination to generate significant synergies.  A combined International Paper Group and DS Smith could generate at least $514 million in pre-tax cash synergies on an annual basis by the end of the fourth year following the acquisition’s completion. IP projects that the total cost to achieve the synergies described above would be approximately $370 million. Note that although the headquarters of the merged group plans to be located in Memphis, Tennessee, the European headquarters would remain in London. International Paper’s announcement came shortly after the announcement of the appointment of Andrew Silvernail as CEO, effective May 1st.

The Brazilian pulp giant Suzano announced a series of price increases for eucalyptus pulp orders in April. In Asia, orders will increase by $30 per tonne. In Europe, prices will increase by $80 per tonne, so the April price will be $1,380.00 per tonne. In North America, prices will rise by US$100 per tonne, for a total price of $1,590.00 per tonne in April.

If you participated in the ‘Nuit du Papier’ and the Pap'Awards 2024 and would like to see the photos for your personal or professional use or for marketing purposes, the photos are now available online at : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13gOCaQAifB9igjux7trHc7SHcNeGEwdA?usp=share_link.

Thank you to all the participants who made Thursday evening, April 4th at the Maison de l'Industrie in Paris such a success! For all those who would like to participate in next year’s ‘La Nuit du Papier,’ note the date: Thursday, April 3, 2025!

The atmosphere at the Copacel press conference on April 4th in Paris felt different this year.  Even if the 2023 figures reflected, unsurprisingly, a decline in the consumption of paper and board in France (-15%), a decrease in production (-13.5%, or 6.1 MT) and a contraction in corporate revenues (-25%, to 5.6 billion euros), all speakers remained optimistic for 2024.  Good news, the market prices of gas and electricity have calmed down, “even if it remains too high,” according to Christian Ribeyrolle (Ryam) Copacel’s President. Also, lower inflation and lower interest rates should boost household consumption and business investment this year. Similarly, he said that “The draft regulations on packaging and deforestation are two misconstrued texts right now,” adding that the reduction in stocks should encourage more orders from paper companies. More broadly, he feared that these Green Deal rules will act as an accelerator of deindustrialization. Hence the European industry’s Antwerp Call, which Copacel recently signed. Paul-Antoine Lacour, Copacel General Delegate described it as “a 10-point document, calling on the EU to take measures to ensure the competitiveness of European industry, while respecting environmental objectives.”  Don’t miss the April issue of Pap'Argus le Mag where you can find all the details of the Copacel balance sheet along with graphs and also comments from François Bru  (Blue Paper’s CEO), Pierre Bonnet (Papeteries de Vizille’s CEO), Christophe Dorin (Wepa’s CEO) and François Vessière, strategist and innovation director at Fibre Excellence.