Jan 28, 2009. /Lesprom.com/. Arrivals of paper pulp in China declined in November 2008, thanks to more imports of waste paper, which can be used as substitute for paper pulp, the General Administration of Customs said. In November 2008, China bought 572 thousand tonnes of paper pulp from abroad, a decrease of 25.3% on the same month of 2007. According to an article on Xinhua, the imports were the lowest on monthly term since the beginning of 2007. By contrast, the country imported 2.14 million tonnes of waster paper in September 2008, up 21.2%, and 1.99 million tonnes in October, up 27.7%. The growth rates were 14.1 percentage points and 15.7 percentage points, respectively, higher than the year-earlier level. The import price of paper pulp was $658.5 per tonne in November, down 4.6% from a year ago. Customs sources attributed the price drop to lowered production cost for paper pulp, which was driven down by price slump for energy products on international markets. In the first 11 months of 2008, China's paper pulp imports amounted to 8.83 million tonnes, up 12.8% on the same period of 2007. Most imports came from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Chile.