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Business Environment Profiles - United States

Price of paper

Published: 07 February 2025

Key Metrics

Price of paper

Total (2025)

347 Index

Annualized Growth 2020-25

6.0 %

Definition of Price of paper

The price of paper is represented by a Bureau of Labor Statistics index that measures the prices received by paper manufacturers for their products. The index has a base year of 1982.

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Recent Trends – Price of paper

Demand for paper products has shrunk considerably since 2000 as the market has shifted toward cheaper and more ecologically friendly electronic media, be it news websites instead of newspapers or e-book readers instead of traditional books. This steady decline in demand has caused the paper manufacturing industry to shrink significantly, with many of the industry's major companies exiting the market or merging. The subsequent decrease in the supply of paper has outpaced shrinking demand, causing the price of paper to rise slowly recently. But, the price of the good did pick up steam between 2005 and 2008 as this uptick occurred primarily due to increased demand from Europe for US paper products, as Europe had already phased out much of its paper production. Price growth slowed significantly over the end of 2008 and 2009 because of the recession, which caused domestic and foreign demand for almost all paper products to fall. The recession also caused many companies to cut costs wherever they could. Paperless offices and eliminating paper mail (e.g. bills and catalogs) became increasingly popular.

In the following years, the rapid recovery of domestic and foreign businesses caused their demand for paper products to jump, pushing the price of paper up 5.0% in 2010 and 3.5% in 2011. Since then, prices have stagnated as global demand for paper and paper products plateaued across most product categories. Weak demand conditions caused the price of paper to weaken by 0.4% in 2016. However, demand for paper picked up in 2018 with prices increasing 2.1% in that year alone. Also, because of the rising input cost to make pulp, paper prices have continued to expand.

As the economy reopened in 2021, demand for paper increased while supply chain disruptions pressured supply. In response, the price of paper rose significantly, expanding by 11.0% in the year alone. Continued issues from the war in Ukraine, which raised energy costs and inflationary pressures from the strong reopening of the economy in 2021, contributed to production costs for many manufacturers being raised in 2022. More robust than expected consumer spending activity in the period contributed to more excessive boosts of prices because of paper's usage in everyday household items like napkins and its use in packaging to cover products that were bought. In response, paper manufacturers had to ramp up production and their operating costs to meet a more robust market, which contributed to paper prices increasing an exponential 13.9% in 2022 alone. As consumer spending remained more afloat in 2023 despite the presence of inflationary pressures, the need for paper for various downstream items that are commonly bought has remained a factor that has pushed up the prices for these goods in the year. In turn, the price of paper has gone up by 1.2% in the year. Factors like inflation are present for 2024, while the rate of consumer spending and industrial production activity is set to keep the need for the material up. By 2025, prices are expected to rise by 3.0% because of these continuing trends that pressure the North American wood market.

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5-Year Outlook – Price of paper

Competitive market conditions will present themselves as a systemic problem for companies in the ...

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