BRUSSELS, Jan. 24, 2002 (paperloop.com) - Softwood market pulp remains under greater pressure than hardwood in Europe. A level of $455/tonne for northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) is now on the table in most negotiations and some sources expect $465/tonne will be gone shortly. With the Montreal meeting around the corner, many buyers remain reluctant to conclude January's orders. Several said they believe NBSK is under pressure to fall back toward the cycle's lowpoint. An indicator of long fiber pulp's vulnerability is Pulpex, where the February bid for NBSK slipped $20/tonne since the first week of January, although it has picked up again during the past few days. But the NBSK supply/demand balance remained unaffected by December's Norscan figures, which showed a 100,000 tonne increase in inventories, as the softwood stock hike came from the southern pine grade. NBSK was still on fairly shaky ground though. FOEX's PIX index for NBSK fell in the week to January 22 by $2.49/tonne to $465.70/tonne, showing some market reaction to the higher inventories. FOEX reflects invoiced prices and as a result does not account for rebates, which are prevalent at the moment. Many buyers are agreeing to prices at the moment subject to adjustments following the Montreal meeting, for example. Hardwood under pressure Eucalyptus, and hardwood in general, may be in better balance than long fiber pulp, but the grade is still under price pressure. The prevailing South American eucalyptus price equates to around $10/tonne more than the Iberian level. As a result, buyers are trying to push South American suppliers down, while the Iberian sellers are rooting for a boost in their euro levels. The Iberians and European pulp producers in general have enjoyed considerable protection from the weakness of the euro compared with the dollar. The favorable currency explains almost unrestricted production in Sweden, for example, while Canada produced at only 76% of capacity in December as it labored under prices which pushed its producers into the red.