White Cardboard Prices See Third Round of Hike This Year

Since September, there have been intensive price adjustment actions in the white cardboard industry: at the end of August, 6 enterprises including Bohui Paper and Asia Symbol took the lead in announcing a price increase of 100 yuan per ton starting from September 1; on September 23, Sun Paper Universal White Cardboard further clarified that all series of products would increase in price by 100 yuan per ton starting from September 26; Nine Dragons Paper set the price adjustment time on October 1, covering all white cardboard categories as well as derivative products such as coated cardboard and food-grade cardboard.

Behind this price hike is the superposition of the industry's continuous cost pressure and peak season expectations. In the first half of 2025, 14 out of 20 domestic listed paper-making companies saw a decline in net profit, and the theoretical gross profit margin of the white cardboard industry remained in the negative range for a long time, resulting in significant operational pressure on enterprises. On the raw material side, waste paper prices have continued to rise since August, and combined with the bottom rebound of pulp costs, it has provided solid support for the price hike. On the demand side, orders for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays are about to be released, and procurement demand in fields such as pharmaceutical packaging and food packaging is heating up, which is expected to ease the supply-demand contradiction in the market periodically.

It is worth noting that the current white cardboard production capacity is still in the phase of expansion. The new 1.2 million-ton production capacity in Hubei will be officially sold externally in September, and the increase in supply may test the implementation effect of the price hike. The industry expects that white cardboard prices will show a moderate upward trend in September, and the actual increase will depend on the continuity of downstream orders.