Production capacity in 2002 hit 100.9m tonnes, up 3% on 2001, while paper production in CEPI member countries was up 2.7% to 90.6m tonnes. The overall consumption of paper and board in CEPI countries rose 1.5% to 82.3m tonnes.

Pulp output increased in line with paper and board production to 38.8m tonnes, up 2.4%. Newsprint was the only grade where production fell, and that was mainly due to the drop in advertising spend. But production of packaging paper rose 4.3% to 36.6m tonnes.