STOCKS OF PULP IN WAREHOUSES AT PRINCIPAL PORTS

At several of the seaports of the United States there are maintained large stocks of wood pulp. The stocks are usually held in general public warehouses or in railway warehouses. The stocks for the most part consist of imported pulp. These stocks should not be confused with such as may be maintained at pulp mills or at paper mills. In general, pulp mills keep very small stocks, their shipments being parallel with their production, and comparatively few of the paper mills maintain important stocks. Details regarding the stocks at the principal individual ports as of January 1 and July 1 of each year since 1929 and as of February 1, 1932, are shown in the appendix. The combined totals for all the ports from which returns were received (Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Newport News, and New Orleans) for domestic and imported pulp were as follows:

It will be seen that stocks of imported pulp at the Atlantic and Gulf ports increased rapidly from January 1, 1929, to January 1, 1931. There was a decline of more than one-fourth on July 1 as compared with January 1 of last year, but this was almost exactly equaled by an increase during the next six months. On January 1, 1932, the reported stocks of imported pulp amounted to a little over 100,000 tons. In the single month of January this figure increased by nearly 50 per cent, the stocks as of February 1 amounting to 150,000 tons, a quantity about equal to the average importation of pulp during one month. The relation of the increase in stocks during the winter months of the last two years to the seasonal variation of imports, especially from Sweden, has already been noted; statistics of stocks are not available for March 1 or April 1.

PRODUCTION BY REPORTING MILLS IN MAJOR PULP-PRODUCING REGIONS

PRODUCTION OF ALL KINDS OF PULP COMBINED

Table 36 shows, by quarters, the production of pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission in the several major pulp-producing regions of the United States. It also shows their shipments to affiliated domestic paper mills and to unaffiliated domestic paper mills. The total shipments in each case are substantially equal to the production. The reports to the Tariff Commission from pulp mills in different parts of the country were not equally complete, and the distribution of the reported production among the five regions is somewhat different for the year 1929 from that shown in the census reports covering all mills. Nevertheless the data are sufficiently representative to permit approximate conclusions as to the trend of total production from quarter to quarter in each of the regions.

TABLE 36.-Wood pulp: Production in major pulp-producing regions by domestic pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission, and shipments to affiliated and unaffiliated paper mills, by quarters

1 Region I includes New England, New York, and Pennsylvania; Region II, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; Region III, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia; Region IV, the Southern States; Region V, the Pacific Coast States.

This table shows that in the northeastern region the decline in production which had been taking place from 1926 to 1930 continued in 1931 and was even considerably accentuated. From 1926 to 1930 total production, as reported to the Bureau of the Census, in the Lake States region had remained more or less stationary; a considerable decline appeared in 1931 but less marked than in the northeastern region. For a number of years up to and including 1930 there had been a marked increase in the output of the Pacific coast region, but

this increase did not continue in 1931; the percentage of decline in that region was however somewhat less than in the northeastern region or in the Lake States region. The decline was confined to the pulp shipped to affiliated paper mills, the shipments to unaffiliated mills having increased markedly. In Regions III and IV combined (the Central Eastern States and the South, the two not being distinguished in order to avoid disclosure of operations of individual concerns) where production had been materially increasing for some time prior to 1930, there was a further slight increase in 1931.

In considering the quarterly movements it should be borne in mind that the pulp industry is in some measure seasonal, production normally being larger during the first half of the year than during the second half. Taking this factor into consideration it may be stated that there was a fairly steady downward trend in production from quarter to quarter beginning at the middle of 1930, in regions I and II. In most of the regions shipments of pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills have fallen much more during the last three years than their shipments to affiliated mills. The Pacific coast is an exception. For the northeastern region shipments of reporting pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills during the last quarter of 1930 were more than 40 per cent less than during the first quarter of that year, and the decline between the first and last quarter of 1931 was about 30 per cent. On the other hand, the shipments of Pacific coast pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills increased between the first and last quarters of 1930 and increased still further in the first quarter of 1931 and were well maintained during the next two quarters of 1931. During the third quarter of 1931 the shipments to unaffiliated paper mills in Region I, in Region II, and in Regions III and IV together, were only about half as great as during the first quarter of 1930, whereas the corresponding shipments of the Pacific coast mills had increased about 50 per cent.

A considerable fraction of the total sales of Pacific coast mills to unaffiliated paper mills is shipped through the Panama Canal to eastern ports, whence they penetrate for some distance into the interior. The following statement shows the quantity of wood pulp moving from Pacific coast ports to Atlantic and Gulf ports during each quarter, beginning with July, 1930.1

1930-July to September..

October to December.

1931-January to March..
April to June...

July to September.
October to December..

Tons

Whatever direct effect upon the sales of pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills may have resulted from currency depreciation must, of course, appear only after the end of the third quarter of 1931, and for reasons already set forth it could hardly be expected that the effect would be considerable until November. From the third to the fourth quarter of last year the shipments to unaffiliated paper mills by the pulp mills of the northeastern region declined about 24 per cent, and similar shipments of mills in the Pacific coast region declined by substantially the same percentage. The decline for the northeastern region was a continuance of that which had already

1 Data furnished by the U. S. Shipping Board.

been manifest. Much less decline appeared in the shipments of the Lake States mills during the last quarter of 1931, and there was a slight increase in those of the mills of Regions III and IV, which, however, are not very large factors in the total supply of the "converting" paper mills.

PRODUCTION OF PRINCIPAL KINDS OF PULP, BY REGIONS

Table 37 shows the production of each principal kind of wood pulp by the domestic pulp mills reporting to the Tariff Commission. Very marked differences appear in the relative regional movements from quarter to quarter as between the different kinds.

Unbleached sulphite pulp is the most important class in the imports into the United States and also in the sales of domestic pulp mills to unaffiliated paper mills. This class is particularly important in the pulp industry of the Pacific coast. That region showed relatively little general downward trend in unbleached sulphite from the beginning of 1930 to the third quarter of 1931, and only a moderate fall in the last quarter, whereas a marked decline had taken place throughout the two years in the northeastern and Lake regions. In the case of bleached sulphite, the Pacific coast showed an increase in production, during 1930 and most of 1931, the Lake States a moderate decline, and the Northeastern States, a conspicuous decline. In the case of unbleached sulphate, the Pacific coast mills show a conspicuous decline in production throughout 1931 as compared with 1930, whereas production in the other regions which are important in this kind of pulp was fairly well maintained; very little unbleached sulphate is produced in the Northeastern States. Moreover, in the case of ground wood, unbleached, relatively little of which is sold to unaffiliated paper mills, the output of the Pacific coast declined more sharply in 1931 than that of the other principal producing region, the northeastern.