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Shortage soon?
A roll of corrugated cardboard on the premises of the Schoellershammer paper manufacturer (archive photo)
Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
The side effects of the Ukraine war also threaten to paralyze the German paper industry.
In particular, the companies in the industry could not cope with a delivery stop for Russian natural gas at the moment, said Alexander von Reibnitz, general manager of the industry association Die Papierindustrie: "A gas embargo would mean a nationwide production stop for the paper industry."
As in other sectors, there would be domino effects here too: As a result, food and drug packaging would be affected, as would hygiene paper for medicine, care and at home, special paper such as filters and measuring strips, and printing paper for newspapers, magazines, catalogs or brochures.
Companies in the paper industry are already struggling with the high raw material costs.
"The economic effects of the war in the Ukraine are now drastically increasing the ever more extreme price pressure on our industry that has been dominating for months," said Steffen Würth, Chairman of the Association of the Corrugated Board Industry.
With a share of 55 percent, natural gas is the most important fuel in the industry, said Reibnitz.
Only 15 percent of the 26 terawatt hours of natural gas required annually could be replaced by other energy sources by next winter.
Because more and more boxes are being sent through online trading and the trade is replacing more plastic packaging with paper, the demand for paper in Germany has recently increased.
Factories increased their capacities, more than 23 million tons were produced in 2021.
Waste paper recycling is also dependent on natural gas
The waste paper import reached a record value;
no country imports more waste paper than Germany.
According to information from the industry, every third tonne of waste paper in Germany is recycled in Europe.
Without natural gas, 50,000 tons of waste paper could not be processed every day.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Germany has the fourth largest paper industry in the world after China, the USA and Japan.
Almost half of the production of paper, cardboard and cardboard is exported.
The Association of the Corrugated Board Industry also cites a growing demand for paper.
"Demand for corrugated cardboard packaging was exceptionally high in 2021," said association chairman Würth in the annual balance sheet for the past year.
Massively increasing paper and energy costs would have reduced the overall balance, however.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the prices for corrugated base paper rose by 66 percent from September 2020 to December 2021, and gas prices by 330 percent from August 2020 to last December.
According to Würth, these massive increases in raw material and gas prices could not have been compensated for.
According to Würth, the revenues of the member companies increased last year by 4.5 cents to an average of 57.7 cents per square meter.
Sales increased by 6.9 percent.
A total of 8.6 billion square meters of corrugated board were sold, 557 million more than in the previous year.
The increase is due, among other things, to increased demand for consumer goods such as household appliances and an ongoing boom in online trade during the pandemic.
ktz/dpa