You cannot turn on the news currently without some story about the rising cost of living and we would love to be able to bring you some great news about how all of our prices are going down, but that would not be true!
Copier paper has always been one of our largest sellers, a commercial product ordered and used in bulk in all types of business sectors up and down the country. Then the pandemic hit. Offices closed, we were all encouraged to work from home. Events were not happening – no posters or flyers printed, documents and agreements were being signed digitally.
As offices reopen and we return to work the paper market is struggling to recover and meet the newfound demand, sending cost prices soaring.
Post-Covid Challenges
Before the paper is even shipped the cost of pulp has increased by nearly 50% in the past 12-18 months. With pulp making up 48% of the production cost – that is significant. Energy prices we all know are on the rise. For a mill producing cut sheet paper it has gone up by over 400%. The impact of this on a carton of paper is staggering.
To make the example easy, if you assume a carton of paper cost £20.00 two years ago, that cost would now be £33.10 – An increase of 65%.
We also have shipping costs on the increase, container shipping costs have increased by up to 800% in some instances, and then when the paper does arrive at port the cost of fuel drives the cost up even further.
As a result of all of this, when demand was on the decline due to lockdown a number of papermills made the decision to switch production to more profitable packaging materials rather than cut sheet paper. To add the final ingredient to the perfect storm, the atrocities in the Ukraine and the knock-on effects, whilst making the cost of paper seem totally insignificant, have nonetheless added to the impact:
• A lot of paper is made in Russia, production has now ceased there.
• A lot of paper is made in Finland and they have been on strike all year
• Russia is a big supplier of trees for pulp, this has now ceased.
• American/Indonesian markets do not want to supply the UK as they get a better return in their own markets.
Our priority remains serving our customers with the best value and the best possible service and we will continue to source the best value copier paper for you to order, but we want to share with you the challenges faced and assure you that we are doing everything we can to deliver. We do have other branded sheets and weights available, if you have concerns about your paper supply, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
