"Its too early to say whether this will come through to the UK, but we hope things will be mirrored," said the Paper Federations director of business affairs, Graham Barnard.

The latest statistics for the North American printing and writing papers industry, compiled by the Pulp and Paper Products Council, showed a year-on-year rise in demand for August of 1.6% to 2.5m tonnes.

Barnard said that while things had improved mid-year in the UK, the picture differed across most sectors.

Although printing and writing paper production had remained steady, he said newsprint was still suffering from reduced revenues and a softening of demand due to low advertising levels.

"I doubt whether our figures for August will be quite as bullish," he said.
The North American figures showed a fifth consecutive monthly rise in demand, with production also up 3.1% to 2.3m tonnes.

Mill inventories for August fell by 32,000 tonnes on the same period last year to 2.4m tonnes, which Barnard said indicated that the American economy was more buoyant than had previously been thought.

"August can be a strange month. But its best not to read too much into one months figures," he added.

Story by Andy Scott