Venezuela faces tough situation

The economic trends were rather negative in Venezuela last year. Despite a large boost in income from rising oil prices, the economic situation has not improved. Papermakers were also hit by a severe contraction in demand for their products. As the national economy has deteriorated, mills have been forced to reduce staff numbers, cancel investments and mothball some operations. As a result, there are only five plants running at the moment.

Paper production continued to decrease last year, falling 14% on 1998 levels. Kraftliner output was the worst hit and showed a drop of 32%. Packaging and wrapping grades also fell by 30%, while printing/writing paper production dropped 18%. On the raw materials side, the picture was hardly better. Pulp production fell 6% and imports dropped 13%. The company news coming out of Venezuela is not that encouraging either. Venepal is still considering a joint venture with Copamex of Mexico, while Smurfit and ABCD Cartiere have put expansion plans on hold for the moment.

On a more positive note, Papeles Venezolanos was due to start up a new 100 ton/day deinking plant in June 2000. The company also hopes to upgrade its PM 5 in 2001, but all other investments are postponed at present.

Major elections are due to be held in Venezuela this month. The president, congress, state governors, state legislators and municipal councils will all be elected. The current president expects to be reelected but there is growing opposition to his rule in view of the country’s economic, political and social problems.

Population: 23,900,000.

Total land area (km^sup 2^): 912,050.

Total forest (km^sup 2^): 620,050.

Commercial forest (km^sup 2^): 62,915.

Per capita consumption of P&B (kg): 27.

Number of P&B mills: 9.

Number of pulp mills: 5.

(Number of pulp liness by type: soda 2; semichemical 2; nonwood 1.)

Paper & board capacity: 854,100 tons.

Pulp capacity: 307,000 tons.

tags
pulp production rising oil prices pulp mills copamex state governors venepal state legislators commercial forest cartiere municipal councils national economy staff numbers writing paper smurfit economic trends expansion plans economic situation abcd contraction raw materials

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2000 at 9:56 pm and is filed under kraft liner news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.