Paper is a prerequisite for most products in print and little else is weighing on printers’ minds as much as the current situation of paper shortages and price rises. In the same way that the pandemic was unforeseen and unprecedented, the current dramatic rise in paper shortages and prices is quite unparalleled as well. Data from Fastmarkets RISI, a global leader in price reporting and market analysis for the forest products sector, provides some great insight into the drivers of these shortages in Europe and how the future might pan out.

Many industries were impacted by the pandemic. However, at a macroeconomic level, the changes sounded less dramatic. While GDP in the Eurozone dropped by 6.5% when the pandemic hit in 2020, it rebounded with a growth of 5.2% in 2021. For 2022, further growth of 2.7% is expected.

For paper demand, the drop and rebound were a lot more decisive. A demand of 1.7 million tons was wiped out from Q1 to Q2 with the onset of the pandemic and the lockdowns that followed. By the end of 2020, demand recovered by more than 1 million tons and demand reached a new high towards the end of 2021. Only moving into 2022 the demand dipped again, as the factors driving the rebound waned.