San Francisco. Oct 25, 2004. /Forestweb/. Kicked off by northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) announcements for China and bleached eucalyptus kraft (BEK) announcements for Europe, several other pulp producers added to the Nov. 1 price increase plans this week. New outlook Södra Cell marketing director Ulf Edman said in a company statement that his price increase is due to stronger demand for pulp, as well as to reduced stock levels, and he did not rule out the possibility of further price hikes. "We can now report an improved delivery situation as well as reduced stocks after a tough autumn with market imbalance," Edman said. "We therefore consider the conditions for a price rise now to be good." A sales executive for a major South American producer agreed. "It seems like the wind is changing," he said. "It feels like the bottom has been reached." In addition to strong demand from China, he said Japanese customers are back in the market and that South Korean interest has picked up considerably. A North American supplier source said his company had turned down business in Korea and elsewhere because the prices being offered were "ridiculous." He added, "We're not playing that game and we don't have the tonnes." A BEK sales executive said Asian customers are asking for more volumes without demanding lower prices, showing that "they have really come back to the market." Maintenance shuts will further tighten up BEK supplies in the fourth quarter, which will help push the prices, he added. Noting increased wood and energy costs, as well as the strengthening Canadian dollar, a North American sales executive said that pulp market fundamentals have improved and besides, that pulp prices "have to get better." Another North American sales executive said the market was never as bad as prices had indicated, and that prices are likely to keep improving now, despite the fact that they just dropped in October. In its earnings conference call today, Weyerhaeuser Co. said paper pulp pricing is likely to improve "in the near future" and described fluff pulp pricing as "very stable" and the market "very well balanced." (The U.S. fluff pulp list price has held at $680/tonne for several months and the price in Europe is $650/tonne.) Despite the improved signs for paper-grade pulp prices, Weyerhaeuser said it expects average realizations for pulp to drop by $25-$30/tonne in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. Weyerhaeuser also said it plans to take a total of 31,000 tonnes of pulp and paper downtime in the fourth quarter, but did not provide details. Korea down As reported last week, the October NBSK price in South Korea dropped by $40/tonne to $510/tonne (which is the new November price in China). Late this week, a major South Korean customer said that overall October prices fell by $40/tonne for softwood and by $10/tonne for hardwood. This would put radiata pine at $495/tonne and SBSK at $485/tonne. Hardwood prices would include mixed NBHK and BEK at $455/tonne and SBHK and mixed tropical at $445/tonne. Hardwood pulp consumption in South Korea in September of 124,400 tonnes was 9.6% higher than in August and 5.4% higher than the year-ago figure, according to a Korean pulp agent. He said paper makers' operating rates were around 90%, due to the Korean Thanksgiving holiday in the last days of the month. September hardwood pulp inventories of 306,800 tonnes fell by 0.4% from August and by 1.2% from September 2003. The agent noted that imported pulp inventories of 254,200 tonnes represented a 5.5% drop from August, while local pulp inventory jumped by 25%. China imports Chinese market pulp imports increased in August compared to a year ago, albeit slightly, but fell compared to July 2004, according to the latest statistics. Overall August 2004 imports of 501,872 tonnes were 2.1% higher than August 2003, whereas previous month-over-month percentage increases this year have been in the double digits. Compared to July 2004, August 2004 imports fell by 7.7%; the July imports were also 7.7% lower than those of June. There were 4,925,216 tonnes of imports in the first eight months of 2004, up 29.0% above those of the year-ago period. Compared to a year ago, August 2004 semi/fully bleached softwood imports of 164,606 tonnes rose by 6.9%, but fell by 11.2% compared to July 2004. Year-to-date they increased by 31.4%, to 1,601,373 tonnes. Semi/fully bleached hardwood pulp imports of 208,571 tonnes in August 2004 dropped by 0.5% year over year, and by 1.9% from those of July 2004. Year to date, they have risen by 37.8%, to 2,073,704 tonnes. August 2004 unbleached softwood kraft pulp imports of 43,274 tonnes fell by 4.5% from August 2003 and by 16.1% from July 2004; year-over-year imports of 410,847 tonnes were 0.8% lower year over year. Mechanical pulp imports of 2,160 tonnes were not even a fourth of those of August 2003 and they were about a third of those of July 2004. For the first eight months of 2004, they decreased by 19.4% to 52,404 tonnes, compared to the year-ago period. The Chinese pulp imports data also includes other kraft grades and dissolving pulps.