Demand for Pulpwood, Paper, Paperboard and Structural Panels

U.S.

• Over the next five decades, the consumption of paper and paperboard will grow more rapidly than any category of forest products, about 1.2 percent per year.
• Consumption of roundwood in the manufacture of paper and paperboard will rise about 0.7 percent per year.
• Pulpwood and paper real prices are projected to be relatively flat over the next five decades with increases slightly above general inflation.
• By 2040, pulpwood demand for softwoods is expected to rise to twice that for hardwood pulpwood.
• Uncertainties in the projections of roundwood use for pulpwood, paper, paperboard and structural panels are the result of such things as rates of wastepaper recycling and use.
• In the longer-term, growing utilization of recycled wastepaper in the production of paper and paperboard is expected.  This will reduce growth in demand for softwood pulpwood, particularly in the South, allowing expanded harvest for solidwood products as pulpwood stands increase to sawtimber size.
• Structural panel prices will be stable in the longer-term because of competition between plywood and oriented strandboard and waferboard, and nearly constant fiber costs for board products.  Oriented strandboard and waferboard absorb essentially all of the growth for this class of product.