Pulp News

Two Pulp producers reported today- Canfor and Catalyst:

The announced price for April 2008 for Northern Europe is US$920 per tonne, an increase of $40 per tonne over the price in March. No price increases have been announced for the North American markets and prices are expected to remain steady at US$880 per tonne in the near term. Since there remains much supply uncertainty in the market, and demand is holding prices are expected to fluctuate in a narrow range over the balance of the year.

and...

"Fibre constraints required us to curtail 65,000 tonnes of pulp and paper at our Elk Falls mill during the quarter," said Richard Garneau, Catalyst president and chief executive officer. "As a result our manufacturing costs and sales volumes were unavoidably impacted. As we look to the balance of the year, we expect the Elk Falls No. 1 paper machine will remain idled with our pulp business also likely to be impacted by the continuing fibre shortage."

The Company's pulp business is expected to take the remainder
of any fibre related downtime in 2008. Approximately 150,000
tonnes of pulp and white top linerboard production is currently
anticipated to be curtailed through the balance of the year
between our Crofton and Elk Falls pulp operations.