The paper manufacturer announced that it was to implement similar price hikes across its graphic papers range in January, which came into effect this month.

However, it claimed a fall in its coated paper prices in the final months of 2012 and continuing rises in input costs have forced the company to propose a further increase to be in place as of 1 April to counteract the current "unsustainably low" prices.

This impacts all the products in the graphic papers range except the uncoated Tauro sheets and reels.

Sappi said that the first price increase of 2013 had "by no means reached accepted levels" of profitability in the face of rising transport, pulp and energy costs, which had "entirely outstripped" the price changes and cost reductions the company had put in place.

The South African group said that the last months of 2012 had brought severe pressure on pricing of all its graphic paper grades.

The increase follows the release of Sappi's Q1 results last week, for the period ending 31 December 2012, which revealed that profits had slumped more than 60% to $17m from $45m in 2011 on sales of $1.5bn and $1.6bn respectively.

In a statement, Sappi chief executive Ralph Boettger said: "The group performance for the quarter was impacted by generally lower selling prices for pulp and paper. We experienced a slightly weaker than expected performance in our Southern African and European businesses. Lower pricing across all graphic paper grades led to lower profitability for the European paper business.

"While Europe remains challenging and conditions worsened during the quarter, Sappi’s operating and sales achievements were ahead of the market. We expect the operating profit in the second half of the financial year to be stronger than in the first half."