Brazil’s Fibria Celulose SA, the world’s largest producer of eucalyptus pulp, has found Asian markets resistant to a recent price hike, a senior executive said on Friday, suggesting an end or pause to a three-year wood pulp rally. Fibria’s head of sales, Henri Philippe van Keer, said on a call to discuss third-quarter earnings that the company had started implementing a $20 per ton price increase globally last month. Despite solid demand in Asia, clients there have resisted higher prices, he added.
“We could see a reversion of that increase or we could see a consolidation. It will depend on other players in the market,” van Keer told journalists, adding that Fibria will try to fully implement the September price hike before considering another. Weaker demand from a slowing Chinese economy has battered the price of several Brazilian commodities, such as iron ore, but wood pulp has resisted the rout so far. Earlier in the day, Fibria posted a quarterly loss of 601 million reais ($155 million) as a tumbling local currency drove up the cost of foreign debts, according to a securities filing.
