1. Entering 1990 s, world's pulp and pulp and paper market tightened with prices getting firm everywhere in the world, although there were some differences in degree of firmness depending upon areas. From mid-1990 s, however, the market began to soften due to stagnant economic climate and adjustment of speculative demand. As a result, paper manufacturers were forced to curtail production to balance inventory. The sluggish market bottomed out in late 1996, but the tempo of recovery has been rather slow.
2. In the meantime, there have been some trends worthy of attention. Among them are changes in supply sources. During the fifteen-year period from 1980 through 1995, production share of North America dropped by 5.2 percent from 41.1 percent to 35.9 percent, and that of Europe was up only 0.8 percent point from 25.6 percent to 26.4 percent, whereas in Asia, it increased by as much as 10.4 percent from 17.5 percent to 27.9 percent. That Japan's production share remained almost unchanged, or from 10.6 percent in 1980 to 10.7 percent in 1995 to be exact, means other Asian nations, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand in particular, expanded a sizeable volume of production capacity during the period.
Along with the fast-growing economy in East Asian countries, the industry in Korea, Indonesia and Thailand have been accelerating capacity expansion and it is almost certain that Asia become one of the three largest paper-producing regions in the world comparable to North America and Europe in the year of 2000.
The other noticeable trend is concentration of paper manufacturers. A number of mergers among the big paper companies have taken place over the years to be internationally competitive and to be better prepared for the ever-stringent regulation for environmental protection. Consequently, ranking positions of paper companies change every year. In Europe, for example, mergers among the paper manufacturers are in progress to have a competitive edge in the EU market. Stora, SCA and MoDo in Sweden and UPM-Kymmene, Enso Gutzeit and Metsa-Serla became now oligopolistic through mergers and restructuring. In the U.S., International Paper bought out Federal Paperboard and Kimberly-Clark merged with Scott Paper. Likewise, two big paper companies were created in Japan through mergers ; Nippon Paper Industries (merger between Jujo Paper and Sanyo-Kokusaku Pulp) and Oji Paper (mergers between New Oji Paper and Honshu Paper).
