Manufacturers of label paper say they have little to be satisfied as regards order levels in the third quarter. While demand was still reasonable at the beginning of July, it already started to slump in August especially for wet-strength and alkali-resistant grades and the slump continued in September. Several manufacturers undertook production cuts in an effort to align capacity with order backlogs, which sometimes only amount to 10 days. "We currently live from hand to mouth", a manufacturer says describing current load rates of machines in the wet-strength and alkali-resistant segment. The situation is slightly better for non-wet strength label paper where delivery periods still extend to 2-3 weeks, reports continue.
