May 12, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. Canadian pulp shipments to China were up a whopping 12% in the first quarter of 2005 while its other major pulp suppliers suffered downturns, an international pulp conference was told yesterday. While Indonesia and Latin America remain China's top two chemical market pulp suppliers, Canada was in solid third place during the last quarter, Kevin McElhatton, president and CEO of the Pulp and Paper Products Council, told delegates. "Growth in Chinese pulp demand will moderate, but still account for almost 30% of global growth over our three- year forecast," McElhatton told a briefing session at International Pulp Week 2005 in Montreal. Chemical market pulp shipments to China from Indonesia declined two% in the first quarter of 2005, compared with the first quarter of 2004, while shipments from Latin America declined 17% but were still around the 350,000-tonne mark, delegates were told. Overall, China's demand for chemical market pulp dropped nine% in the first quarter of 2005. Yet the emerging giant's demand for high-yield market pulp grew by 22% in the quarter while Western Europe's demand dropped by eight%. Global capacity for market pulp is expected to grow by 3.1% in 2005, 3.3% in 2006 and 3.6% in 2007, McElhatton said. Economists consistently say they don't expect China's growth to continue at that pace, "but saying when it will slow down is altogether another matter," Paul Leclair, chief economist for the Pulp and Paper Products Council, told delegates. "If things continue as they are now, China will soon be a net exporter of printing and writing papers rather than a net importer," Leclair said. World demand for printing and writing paper is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2005 and then slow over the next two years.