According to the monitoring of the commodity market analysis system of SunSirs, the prices of softwood pulp and hardwood pulp both saw a significant increase last week. On December 5th, the average market price of softwood pulp in Shandong Province was 5,600 RMB/ton, an increase of 3.07% compared to the average price on November 30th. On December 5th, the average market price of hardwood pulp in Shandong Province was 4,600 RMB/ton, an increase of 4.55% compared to the average price on November 30th.
Supply side: Recently, there have been continuous reports of overseas pulp mills shutting down for maintenance. Domtar officially announced on December 2nd the permanent closure of its Crofton paper mill in Canada, which produces 380,000 tons of Lion brand bleached needle pulp annually; Fenlin Group also announced that the production capacity of 650,000 tons of coniferous pulp at Rauma Pulp Plant will be temporarily suspended starting from December 15th, and is expected to gradually resume production on January 7th next year. Therefore, there may be expectations of a reduction in the supply of imported wood pulp in the future.
In terms of domestic port inventory, the inventory level continued to show a slight trend of destocking in this cycle, and the sample port inventory has been destocking for two consecutive weeks. As of December 4, 2025, the sample inventory of mainstream pulp ports in China was 2.101 million tons, a decrease of 3.3% compared to the previous period's destocking of 71,000 tons. This cycle, the inventory of pulp in the mainstream domestic port of Qingdao Port showed a trend of destocking, and the significant increase in shipment speed was the main reason for the destocking of port inventory; The overall fluctuation of inventory in Changshu Port is not significant, with a trend of narrow destocking, and the shipment volume in the port exceeds 90,000 tons; The inventory levels at other ports have not changed significantly and remain within the normal range of fluctuations.
On the demand side: Although there is still a large amount of finished paper production capacity put into operation this year, the effective demand at the terminal is still insufficient, and the overall output of finished paper has not increased significantly. In addition, due to the sluggish profitability of the industry, the growth rate of demand for raw materials has not kept up with the pace of supply expansion. Downstream paper mills have a cautious attitude towards raw material procurement and generally have low purchasing intentions, resulting in domestic pulp port inventories remaining at historically high levels.
In terms of downstream white cardboard, the current inventory level of enterprises is relatively low, and there is a certain expectation of improvement in orders before the Spring Festival, which creates conditions for price increases in the market. However, the overall terminal orders are not strong at present, and traders are temporarily promoting shipment volume. Paper prices have not yet significantly increased.
In terms of futures: Last week, pulp futures prices rose strongly and did not fall until the weekend. As of December 5th, the opening price of the main pulp futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was 5,536 RMB/ton, the closing price was 5,490 RMB/ton, the highest price was 5,550 RMB/ton, the trading volume was 153,600 lots, and the position was 140,859 lots.
SunSirs wood pulp analysts believe that the current price of softwood pulp mainly follows the volatility of futures sentiment, while hardwood pulp continues to remain strong under the support of import costs, and the supply and demand fundamentals have not undergone fundamental changes. It is expected that the short-term wood pulp price will remain in a high range consolidation.
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