Among those most affected have been web offset printers, some of whom have reported that they have been unable to get hold of some grades for up to 12 weeks.

One web printer said: "It’s an absolute nightmare especially for jumbo reels for the larger web presses. We had standing time last month purely because we couldn’t get paper."

Joe Green, director at merchant Premier Beswick’s web division, said that mills supplying the web market were much busier now than earlier in the year.

"This is particularly obvious with lightweight coated and offset papers," he said.

Green added that the demise of coated fine paper production in the UK had exacerbated the situation, because it left UK printers with no domestic supply.

"There is no doubt that our foreign suppliers are not always keen to supply the UK market with the volumes it needs, certainly not at the prices that led to the demise of Sittingbourne and Blackburn," he said.

Another printer reported that lead times on some Sappi grades were 10-12 weeks on orders of more than 150 tonnes of mixed grades from the same mill.

A spokeswoman for Sappi revealed demand for the company’s Galerie publication grades was "very high at the moment" and that the group is "basically sold out".

She added: "This does not impact the deliveries to our regular customers."

Julian Marsh, director at trade-only printer Prometheus Press, said that sheetfed printers were also feeling the pinch.
"There aren’t enough reels coming in to the UK either for web or to be cut down to special sizes for sheetfed," he said. "We all use the same people, from the same places and it is the lack of these reels causing us all issues."

He added that customers were questioning the combination of big price rises and lack of supply. "They think that printers are trying to capitalise on an uncertain market. Sadly, all this is doing is making customers question the need for print."