SunSirs: China Wood Pulp Price Fluctuates, and the Short-term Trend of Differentiation Continues

According to the monitoring of the commodity market analysis system of SunSirs, the prices of coniferous and hardwood pulp have maintained a contrary trend after the New Year holiday. On January 9, 2026, the average market price of softwood pulp in Shandong Province was 5,616.67 RMB/ton, a decrease of 0.3% compared to the average price on January 4. On January 9th, the average market price of hardwood pulp in Shandong Province was 4,750 RMB/ton, an increase of 1.06% compared to the average price on January 4th.

On the supply side, domestic port inventory showed a trend of cumulative inventory this week. As of January 8, 2026, the sample inventory of mainstream pulp ports in China was 2.007 million tons, an increase of 0.5% compared to the previous period's cumulative inventory of 1.0 million tons. However, there is a significant difference in the trend between coniferous pulp and hardwood pulp, and hardwood pulp maintains a firm quotation under tight supply and external market cost support; The trend of needle pulp will follow more closely with the sentiment of the futures market, and its performance will be relatively stable.

On the demand side: The core contradiction in the current market remains unchanged, downstream raw paper market demand is weak, paper companies have low enthusiasm for stocking high priced raw materials, limited procurement increment, and lack breakthrough driving force in fundamentals. This has led to cautious downstream procurement and weak upward movement of needle pulp; However, due to the high price of hardwood pulp, its downstream market acceptance is limited, and transaction resistance still exists.

In terms of futures, pulp futures prices continued to fluctuate this week. As of January 9, 2026, the opening price of the main contract for pulp futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was 5,504 RMB/ton, the closing price was 5,550 RMB/ton, the highest price was 5,574 RMB/ton, the trading volume was 350,000 lots, and the position was 215,480 lots.

The wood pulp analyst from SunSirs believes that the recent sentiment in the spot market for wood pulp is flat, and the trend of port inventory accumulation is suppressing market trends. Downstream rigid demand procurement is still mainstream, and the market lacks support for high-volume transactions. It is expected that the short-term wood pulp prices will continue to diverge.

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