Botnia pushes up pulp prices

Botnia, the Scandinavian pulp manufacturer, has increased its European pulp prices as the group revealed an increase in sales and operating profit.

The company, which is co-owned by M-real, Metsäliitto Osuuskunta and UPM-Kymmene, introduced the price rises for northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK), bleached birch and bleached eucalyptus pulps as of 1 June.

The new price of NBSK is £402 ($800) per air-dried metric tonne (ADMT), and birch and eucalyptus have risen to £352 per ADMT.

The price rises were announced a month after the group revealed strong figures for the first quarter of 2007. It reported Q1 sales up by 13% to £242m (€357.1m) from the same period last year, although in terms of volume, pulp sales were down 2%.