Shifts in paper use dramatic, CEPI says

The Brussels-based Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) says paper and board consumption rebounded on the continent in 2021 compared with the previous year. The association also notes that how Europeans use paper continues to change.

“While consumption of paper products had decreased by 6.6 percent in 2020, the sector is now showing signs of a strong recovery, with consumption increasing by 5 percent [in 2021] in countries represented by CEPI,” the organization states.

Trends that preceded COVID-19 and related restrictions were then “exacerbated by the pandemic,” CEPI says. Now,  the group says, they are “looking like more profound changes in our consumption patterns. This has caused the industry to adjust its production, discontinuing lines and investing to adapt to the change.”

Citing its “in-house statistics team, CEPI says increased European and overseas demand helped paper and board production grow by 5.8 percent in the CEPI region in 2021. “Exports outside of CEPI countries, which had gone down by 8.4 percent in 2020, are back to their 2019 level, driven by strong increases in sales in North and South American markets,” the group states.

As it has in North America, CEPI says “a dramatic surge in online shopping [has] been a boon for producers of paper and board packaging.”

CEPI estimates the production of paper and board used for that purpose increased by 7.1 percent in 2021 compared with 2020 and was up by 2.1 percent compared with the prepandemic year of 2019.

The sustainability and “high recyclability” of containerboard has been a contributor to the success, CEPI says, adding those factors “have contributed to the materials’ popularity amongst consumer-oriented shippers and transporters.”

Recovered fiber has grown as a raw material in Europe, CEPI finds, writing, “The utilization of paper for recycling by paper companies in the CEPI area increased by 5.3 percent [in 2021] compared to 2020, reaching its highest level ever at 50.5 million metric tons. Moreover, 96 percent of European paper for recycling utilization is supplied domestically.”

Demand for tissue paper in Europe slightly decreased in 2021, but CEPI says “it is still slightly above pre-pandemic consumption levels.”

The overall production of “graphic grades,” or paper used for printing, drawing and writing, registered a small increase in 2021 in Europe, CEPI says, though demand for newsprint “is still waning as a result of our ever-increasing reliance on screens for news consumption, with some producers still adjusting to this new reality.”

The demand for board versus graphic paper has resulted in a parade of mill and paper machine conversion projects in nations including France, Austria and the United Kingdom.

Containerboard is not the only form of paper packaging gaining favor in Europe. The production of wrapping or kraft grades—used for paper bag production—increased by an impressive 11.7 percent year on year in 2021. These grades benefitted from “the EU-backed phase-out of plastic packaging,” CEPI says.

Sustainability also has spurred “production of paper for innovative uses, mainly for industrial purposes,” adds the group, with this small but growing sector having witnessed a 9.6 percent rise in output last year.

“These figures, relating to both traditional and more innovative products from biorefineries, point towards what is known in the industry as the ‘substitution effect,’” CEPI says. “Paper and other forest-based products are set to progressively replace, to some extent, various less sustainable materials and chemicals.  Although these products still represent a marginal share of the overall production, the association's statistics show these changes are taking place rapidly and are even accelerating.”

The entire CEPI 2021 statistical report can be downloaded from this web page.