<B>High Grades Slumping</B>

The pulp substitute market is seeing some fairly acute downward declines lately. The slide in prices can be attributed to the slide in pulp prices over the past month. Reflecting the softening condition in the pulp market a host of Norscan pulp producers announced plans to take machines off line to remove excess capacity from the market.

Several of the largest paper companies in North America, including Bowater, Georgia Pacific, Mead and International Paper all announced plans to curtail production to bring the supply and demand back into balance.

Pulp prices have responded to the oversupply over the past several months by declining fairly sharply. According to the Pulpex pulp exchange, futures prices have declined by more than $200 a metric ton over the past several months. The decline has pushed down grades such as hard white envelopes, hard white shavings and unprinted and lightly printed sulphates by $20 a ton or more lately.

With further production declines scheduled through the next several months it may be possible that there will be further price declines seen for pulp substitutes.

While prices have eased back, there appears to be a growing opinion that pulp prices will likely stabilize until perhaps the end of the first quarter of next year.

The slide in prices, however, may be short lived. A number of pulp producers are tightening their belts at the present time in anticipation of a push for higher pulp prices early next year. If pulp prices increase pulp substitutes will follow suit.