Portucel Soporcel is to increase the European prices of its uncoated fine papers, sheets and reels, by between 4 percentage and 8 percentage, for the third time this year. Recently, the company had announced a price increase in Middle East and North of Africa.

The Portuguese company has said it has been forced to make the move, which will come into effect in September, because “the strong pressure on the industry’s cost structure, continuous profitability deterioration and high operating rate has made the current prices unsustainable”.

Portucel is the latest in a series of paper manufacturers to raise prices.

In 2014, the Portucel Soporcel group set a new record for paper output, increasing the sales volume by 3 percentage to 1,564 million tons, allowing the Group to achieve growth in turnover to €1,542.3 million.

Having consolidated its position as the leading European manufacturer, and the sixth largest in the world, of uncoated woodfree (UWF) printing and writing paper, the Group is also Europe’s top producer of BEKP (Bleached Eucalyptus Kraft Pulp), and the fifth largest in the world.

In May, Sappi Europe announced an 8 percentage price rise on its coated fine and coated mechanical paper reels from 1 July, 2015 citing low prices, tight margins and the high cost of wood pulp. It followed with a similar rise of 8 percentage for its woodfree coated sheets and its woodfree uncoated sheets and reels by percentages 5-8 a few weeks later.

In the same month, Lecta also announced a percentages  6-8 price rise on its coated woodfree papers, also effective from the beginning of July 2015. The group had already put the prices of its speciality papers up by percentage  5-7 in April 2015.

And in June 2015, Mitsubishi HiTec Paper announced a rise for all the products in its range.

All three companies cited high production costs as the reason for the rise.