COMPARISON OF SHIPMENTS BY PULP MILLS TO UNAFFILIATED PAPER MILLS AND RECEIPTS OF PAPER MILLS FROM UNAFFILIATED PULP MILLS

If it had been possible for the commission to obtain reports from all domestic pulp mills and all domestic paper mills, there would doubtless have been close harmony between the reports of the pulp mills concerning shipments to unaffiliated paper mills and the reports of the paper mills concerning receipts from unaffiliated pulp mills. But as the reports received were in neither case complete, it was not to be expected that the two sets of figures would agree in amount for any one period of time. If, however, the samples were sufficiently complete the relative changes in the two sets of figures from month to month and from quarter to quarter should be substantially parallel. Table 25 presents a comparison of the two sets of returns, namely, the reported shipments by pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills in the United States and the reported receipts of domestic pulp by paper mills from unaffiliated pulp mills.

TABLE 25.-Comparison of domestic shipments by pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission with receipts of paper mills reporting, monthly averages, by quarters

This table shows a rough parallelism of movement over the period of three years taken as a whole; but some rather considerable disparities appear. Both sets of data indicate a marked decline during the early part of 1930, but the first two quarters of 1931 as compared with the last quarter of 1930 show a considerable increase. The decline in the receipts by paper mills from unaffiliated pulp plants during the third quarter of 1931 as compared with the second quarter was much greater than the decline reported by pulp mills in their shipments to unaffiliated paper mills. Precisely the reverse, however, appears in the comparison between the fourth quarter of 1931 and the third quarter. The paper mills reported the receipt of practically the same quantities of pulp from unaffiliated domestic pulp mills during the fourth quarter as during the third quarter of 1931.

PRODUCTION BY DOMESTIC PULP MILLS COMPARED WITH IMPORTS

Table 26 shows, by quarters, the total production of wood pulp by domestic mills reporting to the Tariff Commission, distinguishing chemical from mechanical pulp, in comparison with the total imports. The production includes both that for self-consumption in the same. or affiliated plants and that for sale. As shown in a subsequent

table, very nearly all of the mechanical pulp produced is for selfconsumption. The data for total imports and total production reporting to the commission are also shown in Chart H. The absolute figures of domestic production in this table for a given period should not be compared with the absolute figures of imports, since the import data are complete, whereas the domestic production data represent only mills reporting to the commission. The movement of production and imports as revealed in the relative numbers is comparable.

CHART H

THOUSANDS

OF TONS

300

250

200

WOOD PULP: TOTAL IMPORTS AND PRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC
MILLS REPORTING TO THE UNITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION
1929-1932

·DOMESTIC PRODUCTION

JULY OCT JAN APR JULY OCT JAN APR JULY OCT
1929

1930

1931

JAN APR

1 1932 TS

TABLE 26. Comparison of production of domestic pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission with imports of wood pulp, monthly averages, by quarters

The table shows, after allowing for seasonal changes, a general downward trend in domestic production after the second quarter of 1930, in contrast with a much more variable movement of imports. The significance of the increase in imports during the last quarter of 1931 and the first quarter of 1932, in its relation to currency depreciation, has already been discussed.

The movement of the domestic production of mechanical pulp reported by pulp mills to the Tariff Commission has been rather widely different from that of chemical pulp during each of the years covered by the table. In 1931 the third quarter showed a much more marked decrease as compared with the second quarter in the case of mechanical than of chemical pulp, but in the fourth quarter there was an increase in mechanical against a decrease in chemical. The changes in the imports of chemical pulp are more significant than those in the imports of mechanical pulp, because much the greater part of the total importation is of the chemical variety. Here, again, wide disparity appears as between the movements of imports of the two kinds of pulp.

Table 27 affords a comparison of the monthly figures of imports with production of domestic mills reporting to the Tariff Commission for all wood pulp combined and for chemical and mechanical pulp separately.

TABLE 27.-Comparison of production of pulp by domestic pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission with imports, by months

SHIPMENTS BY DOMESTIC PULP MILLS TO AFFILIATED AND UNAFFILIATED PAPER MILLS COMPARED WITH IMPORTS

It has been shown in Table 24 that the movement of the shipments of domestic plants to unaffiliated paper mills has been somewhat different from that of their shipments to affiliated mills, the proportion going to unaffiliated mills having declined, on the whole, throughout the 3-year period and having declined sharply during the last quarter of 1931. Consequently the relation between the movement of imports and the movement of domestic shipments is different when shipments to the two classes of mills are considered separately. Table 28 shows the comparative data. The most noteworthy features of this table are the marked decline in the shipments of pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills during the fourth quarter of 1931 and the increase in imports during both the third and fourth quarters. The decline in the shipments to affiliated plants from the second to the fourth quarter was less marked.

TABLE 28.-Comparison of shipments of pulp to unaffiliated domestic paper mills by pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission, with imports, monthly averages, by quarters

RECEIPTS OF PULP BY PAPER MILLS, BY SOURCES

In order to obtain as full information as possible concerning the consumption of imported wood pulp in the United States, the Tariff Commission addressed its questionnaires for paper mills chiefly to mills which were known to purchase a large part of their pulp either from unaffiliated domestic pulp mills or from foreign sources. In other words, the so-called converting paper mills were much more fully represented in the compilation than the so-called integrated paper mills. Consequently the proportions of pulp received from the

different sources by the mills reporting to the Tariff Commission are by no means representative of the corresponding proportions for all paper mills in the country. The resulting statistics are, however, significant as showing the changes during recent years in the sources of pulp consumed by the reporting mills.

Table 29 shows, by quarters, for 1929 to 1931, the average monthly receipts of pulp by paper mills reporting to the Tariff Commission from (a) domestic pulp mills affiliated with the reporting paper mills, (b) unaffiliated domestic pulp mills, (c) affiliated foreign pulp mills (a minor item), and (d) other foreign sources. For ready comparison of the movements of the pulp received from these different sources, relative numbers based on the monthly average for 1930 are included in the table. Table 30 shows by percentages the distribution of the receipts from these four sources; although, as above stated, the percentages for a given quarter are not representative of the sources of total pulp consumption in the United States, the changes in them from quarter to quarter are significant.

TABLE 29.-Receipts of pulp by paper mills reporting to the Tariff Commission from specified sources, monthly averages by quarters

From the beginning of 1929 until the middle of 1930 the reporting paper mills were taking a decreasing percentage of their pulp from foreign sources and a rising proportion from affiliated domestic mills. A marked increase in the proportion from foreign sources took place during the latter half of 1930, after which there was little change until the third quarter of 1931, before depreciation in foreign countries had set in, when the proportion from foreign sources rose (from 64.2 per cent in the second quarter to 68.3 per cent in the third). The proportion from foreign sources was still higher in the last quarter of 1931, 69.1 per cent, but the change was less marked than in the third quarter.