"Its not a very strange reason, its just that the market has improved, and we have seen Norscan inventory levels fall recently," said Sdras head of information, Ulf Gunnarsson (pictured).

The increase comes on the back of Weyerhaeusers announcement of a 14-per-tonne increase for its NBSK pulp to 330 per tonne for European customers and 344 per tonne for its US sales base.

Gunnarsson said that Sdra had seen continuous improvement in demand, coupled with the Norscan inventory stock levels falling by 188,000 tonnes to 1.5m tonnes in April.

"We believe this increase will lead to a better balance between supply and demand," he said.

He added that price rises announced earlier in the year had been accepted by the market, and he saw no reason why the latest would be met with any resistance.

The rise is the Swedish producers third pulp price increase this year, but Gunnarsson said he could not predict whether further increases were likely or not.

"We do think that the market situation will improve more towards the end of the year," he added.

Sdra is the one of the largest producers of market pulp, with an annual capacity of 2m tonnes. 70% of its pulp production is softwood pulp, with 30% hardwood. 80% of its output is Totally Chlorine Free (TCF).

Story by Andy Scott