Price Of Paper Due To Rise

As we are involved in the printing industry – with services including print and document management and outsourced printed communications – the news that the cost of paper is due to rise in recent months was something that we felt the need to share.

As reported at the end of last month on the Print Week news site, two major European paper manufacturers are looking to implement significant price increases over the course of this summer, impacting on the print industry across the region.

Both manufacturers will introduce the price increases at the beginning of July. The hikes are reportedly the result of rising manufacturing costs – specifically regarding the cost of raw materials – meaning that in order to stay profitable the businesses need to adjust their pricing structure for customers.

So how will this affect the UK’s print industry? Well, as we commented on earlier this month, Print Week also released a report stating that the global print industry looks positive for 2015; additionally, the SourceWire website recently reported that the UK print industry is experiencing a boom and detailed the positive effect this has had on the UK industrial sector, too.

It seems that despite the possible gloomy news from Europe regarding the raw materials and final products required for printing purposes, the sector still looks set to maintain positive growth in the coming months. Q2 is widely believed to be as positive as Q1 was; but with the price rises not being confirmed until July, it seems that the influence of quarters three and four remain to be seen.

Commenting on the price rises, one printing business made a statement to Print Week: “At the moment our view is that paper is too expensive in the UK compared to continental Europe”, but it may transpire that with these changes “the price in euros goes up, but the price in sterling will be okay.”

How do you think rising paper prices will affect the UK print industry, if at all?