Norpac: 70# Orca Offset being discontinued, 50# and 60# will continue to be important grades for the mill.

UPM’s negotiations with the Finnish Paperworkers’ Union (Paperiliitto) are now underway for UPM Pulp, with the other UPM businesses expected to follow, according to media reports from Finland. Finnish trade publication Print&Media has reported that, following movement with the situation on Friday, negotiations have started today (7 February) for the UPM Pulp business and negotiations on UPM’s other divisions should also begin this week. The publication was also sent a comment from labels division UPM Raflatac, in response to the warning from the European association for the self-adhesive label industry, Finat, on the availability of label stocks, which it shared with Printweek: “The strike further aggravates the industry level supply situation which has been tight and constrained already since early 2021.

The decrease in consumption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered strong pressure on prices. In combination with cost increases in paper production and transport this has led to unsustainable profitability levels, especially felt in our overseas markets. Sappi has therefore been forced to review its pricing per market and product segment, adjusting them accordingly. The increases will be applied as of shipments from January 2021 at the latest and will vary between 5 and 8%.

People are reading more again! During the pandemic, reader’s turned more to magazines, books, and newspapers, and many print subscriptions were sold. Print products continue to enjoy a high level of trust. In addition, catalogues and advertising journals are very popular with consumers – printed on high-quality paper grades from UPM. As the leading graphic paper producer UPM Communication Papers offers an extensive product range for all main printing methods, be it heatset web offset, coldest web offset, sheet fed offset, rotogravure or digital. In order to meet our customers’ needs and to ensure the high service capability and ultimate supply security we have further improved our CMR offering. The new offering on the non-glossy side will consist of three product ranges with a silky surface and excellent brightness levels: UPM Star silk H, UPM Ultra silk H new and UPM Cote silk H. Furthermore, the new offering includes two true matt and high bulk product ranges: UPM Star matt 1.2 H and UPM Ultra matt 1.2 H.