<B>Norscan Pulp Inventories Climb</B>

The inventory of pulp by North American and Nordic pulp producers climbed 136,000 metric tons for last month, pushing the total to close to 1.66 million metric tons.

Broken out by individual countries inventory levels increased for all the regions. Further, the operating rate at pulp mills declined. The drop reflected the significant amount of downtime that is being taken throughout Norscan countries.

According to one report the amount of production that has come off line over the past several months is between 600,000-800,000 metric tons.

In the United States, the operating rate stands at 88 percent of capacity, while the rate at Canadian mills stands at 93 percent of capacity; Finland, 98 percent of capacity; and Sweden, 97 percent of capacity.

Slackening demand for the finished product has led to reports of ample discounting taking place. Not only have pulp prices been sliding back down, but many pulp substitutes have been sliding back down, reflecting slowing demand for the finished product.

While ample downtime has been taken over the past quarter, there is expected to be additional downtime scheduled for the first quarter of next year, adding to concerns that pulp markets could continue to be sluggish over the first quarter of 2001.