Paper shortage – Finnish news papers are reducing the number of pages

There is no improvement in sight when it comes to the shortage of paper: The strike at UPM in Finland is prolonged again, this time with a new deadline of April 16. Furthermore, Norske Skog has temporary closed down parts of its news and magazine print business in Austria due to high energy prices. This is reported by Branschkoll.

The conflict at UPM in Finland has been further extended to April 16. There have been some negotiations between the parties involved, but so far no new agreement has been closed. News agency YLE reports that the strike has led to several resignations at the UPM plant. Timo Hietanen from UPM’s trade union in Jämsänkoski tells YLE that it might be problematic to start production again quickly if more experts at the plant choose to resign.

News papers in Finland, which recently bought almost 20 % of its paper from Russia, have already started to reduce their number of pages. This is confirmed by Finnish paper Helsingin Sanomat, according to YLE. Henri Parkkinen, analyst at OP, tells YLE that the price of news print has increased from approximately 390 euro per tonne to more than 670 euro per tonne during the last year.

Simultaneously, high energy prices continue to put pressure on the paper producers. Norske Skog recently closed parts of its news and magazine print production in Austria and told the stock exchange that “the energy prices currently experienced makes production in Bruck unsustainable.” The company has later reported that the production will be started gradually again as “energy prices to a certain extent have stabilized.”