With the exception of the month of December in 2006, the SC Magazine sector put in an extremely strong performance. Demand and exports increased each month compared to the year earlier period, even when all the other mechanical paper segments were in decline.

Exports of SC Magazine paper reached almost 1.25 million tonnes in 2006, up from 1 million tonnes in the previous year. The share of exports out of total deliveries also showed signs of growth with overseas deliveries rising to 28.1% of total deliveries, the highest level of exports seen since the early ‘90s. As for the other mechanical paper sectors, SC was hit hard by the Finnish labour dispute in 2005 as Finland accounts for about one third of Europe’s SC capacity, so at least part of the upswing in deliveries can be linked to a "natural" recovery. Other contributing factors to the rise in deliveries were an increase in available capacity in the sector, grade switching from LWC to SC, and the 9-month strike at Stora Enso’s Port Hawkesbury mill in Canada, all of which boosted shipments from Western Europe.

The major project underway in the SC Magazine paper sector last year took place at Stora Enso’s Kvarnsveden mill in Sweden. The company ramped up production on its new PM 12, bringing some 420,000 tonnes of SC-A and SC-A+ capacity onto the market in stiff competition with LWC grades.

Despite a rise in capacity of 9.8% in 2006, the Delivery-Capacity balance still managed to rise to 90%. This is an improvement over the 88% reported in 2005, and just behind the 92% recorded in 2004. Within the grade, there was healthy development of both qualities over the year with deliveries of SC-Standard and SC-B growing by 11% and 14% respectively.

Germany is still in pole position as the largest Western European market for SC Magazine paper at 44%. France comes next with 15% of the market, followed by Italy with 10% and Great Britain still in a slow decline with just 8% last year. On the production side, Finland leads with 32%, with Germany close behind on 30%.

Graphs and tables

Delivery & Capacity Development
Delivery - Capacity Balance
Delivery - Capacity Development
W.E. Deliveries - by Destination
W.E. Exports: Volume and %-Share of Total Deliveries
Sub-Quality Development - Deliveries
Largest Western European Markets
Largest Western European Producers
Demand Development per Largest Market
Demand Development per Second Largest Market
Capacities
Deliveries By Destination - Total SC Magazine
Deliveries By Destination - SC Magazine Standard
Deliveries By Destination - SC-B Magazine