NEW YORK, March 3, 2003 — The SC Council reports that shipments of supercalendered paper to North America increased 6.4% in 2002, continuing the grade's strong growth performance. The industry's fastest growing grade, SC is the only paper grade to consistently post year-to-year increases over the last several years. SCA, which is the majority of SC paper used in North America, was up 12.7%. The SC Council is a worldwide association of manufacturers and marketers of quality supercalendered paper. A total of 2,967,100 metric tons of SC paper was shipped in 2002, compared with 2,787,700 metric tons shipped in 2001. Of the total 2002 tonnage, 2,424,500 tons, or 81.7%, were shipped by North American SC producers, while 542,600 tons, or 18.3%, were shipped by European producers. The shipment figures reported by The SC Council include the output of every manufacturer of SC paper produced both "in-line" and "off-line" delivered to North American destinations.