China’s packaging paper market has entered the traditional peak season, with a wave of price increases launched by leading and regional paper manufacturers amid advancing holiday and e-commerce stocking cycles.
Recently, major paper mills including Nine Dragons, Anhui Linping, Shandong Renfeng and Jinbaoshi have officially issued price adjustment notices, raising the prices of corrugated paper, carton paper and recycled kraft paper by RMB 50 per ton. Specifically, the Shenyang base of Nine Dragons implemented a RMB 50/ton increase for corrug
The round of price hikes is mainly driven by rising raw material and production costs. The prices of domestic waste paper, energy and chemical auxiliary materials have continued to climb, putting upward pressure on manufacturers’ comprehensive production costs. Meanwhile, downstream packaging enterprises have started pre-stocking for the Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day holiday and Double 11 shopping festival, effectively boosting market demand. In addition, the impact of imported paper has weakened, helping packaging paper producers gradually restore profit margins.
The paper industry shows obvious structural differentiation in the third quarter. The packaging paper sector benefits from robust peak-season demand and improved profitability, while the cultural paper market remains sluggish with weak market demand. Industry insiders noted that domestic paper mills are optimizing capacity through phased shutdowns and maintenance, phasing out cut-throat price competition, and shifting competition focus to cost control and product structure upgrading.
Market uncertainties still remain. The future trend of packaging paper prices will be affected by the recovery strength of terminal consumption, fluctuations in waste paper prices, and downstream order and procurement conditions. The implementation of the latest price adjustments will be closely followed by the industry.