TABLE 42.-Average foreign unit value of imports of chemical pulp from the principal countries, by quarters

[The relative numbers are based on the average value for 1930 as 100]

CHART P

WOOD PULP: AVERAGE FOREIGN VALUE PER TON OF
IMPORTS OF CHEMICAL PULP FROM THE PRINCIPAL
COUNTRIES, BY QUARTERS.

TABLE 43.-Average foreign unit value of imports of unbleached mechanical pulp from the principal countries, by quarters

[Per ton of 2,000 pounds. Relatives are on the basis of 1930 average as 100]

WOOD PULP: AVERAGE FOREIGN VALUE PER TON OF IMPORTS
OF UNBLEACHED MECHANICAL PULP FROM THE PRINCIPAL

AVERAGE PRICES OF SALES MADE BY PULP MILLS AND OF PURCHASES BY PAPER MILLS, BY QUARTERS

The commission received from a large number of pulp mills in the United States data showing for each month the shipments of pulp by quantity and the value thereof f. o. b. shipping plant. Distinction was made between shipments to affiliated paper mills and those to unaffiliated mills. Average unit values of these shipments have been computed. It is believed that greater significance attaches to the

average values for the shipments to unaffiliated paper mills than for those to mills under the same control. Although a pulp mill shipping to an affiliated concern may charge the prevailing market price, it may, on the other hand, make the charge on the basis of cost of production or on the basis of some arbitrary figure.

The average unit values for any given month of the product shipped to unaffiliated paper mills are, as already stated, affected by contracts made in earlier months.

Table 44 shows, by quarters, from 1929 to 1931, the average unit prices received by pulp mills for the different principal kinds of pulp. It also shows corresponding average prices for the purchases of paper mills (a) from unaffiliated domestic pulp mills and (b) from foreign sources. As in the case of the pulp-mill data, the figures for average values of purchases from unaffiliated plants are presumably more significant than those for the product received from affiliated concerns. For reasons already set forth (see p. 64), the average prices reported by the pulp mills are not directly comparable with the average prices reported by the paper mills for domestic pulp, but the trends of the two series should be approximately comparable.

TABLE 44.-Average prices of sales made by pulp mills and of purchases by paper mills reporting to the Tariff Commission, by quarters

A. Average for domestic sales to unaffiliated paper mills by pulp mills reporting.
B. Average for purchases by reporting paper mills from unaffiliated domestic pulp mills.
C. Average for purchases by reporting paper mills from unaffiliated foreign pulp mills.

The movements of these average prices received by pulp mills and prices paid by paper mills for both domestic and foreign pulp are in a broad way parallel with those already presented for average unit values of imports and contract prices made by importers. For cach class the average values reported both by the pulp mills and the paper mills were lower in the fourth quarter of 1931 than at any other time during the past three years. The extent of the decline shown for this quarter as compared with the third quarter of 1931 varies from 1 or 2 per cent up to 7 or 8 per cent. In the case of all kinds of pulp, however, there had already been a marked decline in prices before the last quarter of 1931, and in a number of cases the decline shown during some previous quarter, as compared with that immediately preceding it, was greater than the decline in the last quarter of 1931.

The comparison for a given month or quarter between the average price paid by the paper mills for a given kind of domestic pulp and the average for the same kind of foreign pulp does not necessarily indicate with certainty whether the prevailing market prices of the one were higher or lower than of the other. The relationship of the two may be the result of differences in grades, in the geographical location of the reporting mills, and in the time at which contracts for the pulp were made.

It will be seen that throughout the period covered by the table the average unit price paid by the reporting paper mills for foreign unbleached sulphite pulp was somewhat higher than for the domestic purchased from unaffiliated mills. The opposite was the case, however, with respect to bleached sulphite. For unbleached sulphate the prices paid by the paper mills were consistently higher for the foreign product than for the domestic during 1929 and the early part. of 1930, whereas the relationship during the latter part of 1930 and during 1931 was less stable, the one being higher in price during certain periods and the other higher during other periods. In the case of ground wood, unbleached, the prices paid for the foreign product were throughout higher than for the domestic, the difference being accentuated during 1931.

MONTHLY STATISTICS OF PRICES

AVERAGE FOREIGN UNIT VALUES OF IMPORTS, BY MONTHS

Table 45 shows, by months, the average foreign unit values of the several kinds of pulp imported. Tables 46 and 47 show similar data for the imports from each principal country. The general trends revealed by these monthly data have already been brought out in the discussion of the quarterly averages. For some kinds of pulp, in certain months, movements up or down appear which are apparently inconsistent with the general trends; these may be due to more or less accidental causes, such as an unusually large proportion of imports under contracts made some time previously, or such as the shipment of pulp of an unusually high or low grade. These irregularities are largely smoothed out in the quarterly averages.