TABLE 13.-Wood pulp: Imports of sulphite pulp, from principal countries [Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Foreign Commerce and Navigation] TABLE 14.-Wood pulp: Imports of sulphate pulp from principal countries [Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Foreign Commerce and Navigation] TABLE 15.-Wood pulp: Imports of ground wood pulp from principal countries [Source. U. S. Department of Commerce, Foreign Commerce and Navigation] III. QUANTITATIVE CHANGES IN IMPORTS, PRODUCTION AND SALES BY PULP MILLS, AND RECEIPTS BY PAPER MILLS, AS RELATED TO CURRENCY DEPRECIATION INTRODUCTION In considering the facts with regard to production, imports, and prices of wood pulp during recent months, since September, when the exchange of the principal foreign pulp-producing countries first became depreciated, it is necessary to compare whatever trends may be revealed with trends prior to the beginning of currency depreciation. It is also desirable to compare the trends with respect to wood pulp with the trends with respect to commodities in general. Certain of the broader movements in the wood pulp industry and trade have been brought out by the annual statistics presented in Section II. A more nearly precise picture requires the consideration of monthly data, which are shown in the present section of this report. The trends already brought to light by the annual statistics may be briefly summarized as follows: (a) There had been a substantially unbroken increase in United States consumption of wood pulp for a series of years preceding 1929 but, in harmony with the general decline in industry and commerce, there was a decrease in consumption in 1930 and a further decrease in 1931. (b) Although imports during recent years have been a much larger proportion of total domestic consumption of wood pulp than before the World War or immediately after the war, there was little change between 1926 and 1931 in the ratio of imports to domestic production. (c) Throughout recent years and in times when the currency of all the countries concerned was at par, imports from northern European countries, whose currency is now depreciated, were gaining relatively at the expense of imports from Canada. (d) During the past decade the production in the Northeastern States (New England, New York, and Pennsylvania) has become a constantly smaller proportion of the total output. At the same time there has been a very marked gain in the proportion supplied by the Pacific coast and the South. (e) The greater part of the domestic production of wood pulp is by integrated concerns which consume their pulp in manufacturing paper in the same or affiliated plants. Largely because of the increased production on the Pacific coast, however, the quantity of pulp produced for sale to independent converting mills increased rapidly between 1925 and 1929. (f) Those paper mills which do not have their own domestic supply of pulp have in all recent years imported much more pulp than they have bought from domestic producers. In considering the effect of currency depreciation in the wood-pulp trade, statistics relating to quantities are shown first and later on (Section IV) those of average unit prices and average unit import values (in certain of the tables in Section III, however, average prices or values are also shown). The effect of currency depreciation, if any, might be expected to show itself in the quantities of imports, the amount of pulp contracted for future delivery by importers, the output of domestic pulp mills, both for transfer to affiliated paper mills and for sale to unaffiliated concerns, and the relative receipts of pulp by paper mills from domestic concerns, affiliated or unaffiliated, and from foreign sources. These different aspects are taken up in the order named. IMPORTS, CONTRACTS FOR EUROPEAN PULP, AND RECEIPTS OF FOREIGN PULP BY PAPER MILLS IMPORTS SINCE DEPRECIATION SET IN (OCTOBER-MARCH) COMPARED WITH PREVIOUS PERIODS It would hardly be expected that the quantity of pulp actually arriving in the United States from countries with depreciated currency could be affected materially for a few weeks after depreciation set in. Time is involved in the negotiation of contracts as well as in transportation. Depreciation began in most of the pulp-producing countries about September 25. It could hardly be expected to have exercised much influence on the imports for October. Nevertheless, as a convenient summary the total imports for the six months from October to March, inclusive, have been computed, and these have been compared with the imports for the same period of 1930-31. In view of the fact that the comparison between these two periods might be affected by a general downward trend in the pulp industry and trade, the comparison between these two periods is set over against a comparison between the nine months January to September, 1931, and the same nine months of 1930. It is scarcely appropriate to compare the average monthly imports of the period since depreciation began with those for the earlier months of 1931, for the reason, brought out more fully in subsequent tables, that the imports are apparently affected by seasonal causes. Table 16 presents this comparison for the imports of all pulp and of each of the principal kinds, from all countries, and from each of the principal sources of supply. Of these sources, Canada, Sweden, and Finland have depreciated currency, and Germany, which is important only in the importation of bleached sulphite pulp, is on the gold standard. TABLE 16.-Wood pulp: Ratio of quantity imported in specified periods to the quantity imported during the same period one year earlier Total all pulp- October, 1931-March, 1932. October, 1931-March, 1932. January-September, 1931. Sulphate, unbleached October, 1931-March, 1932. January-September, 1931.. Sulphate, bleached October, 1931-March, 1932. October, 1931-March, 1932. 1*mports unimportant. |