The first quarter of 2023 has seen a year-on-year decrease of 4.5% in China's newsprint imports, which totalled 103.1 thousand tons. The value of these imports has fallen by 18.4%, settling at $57.1 million. This contraction correlates with the average price of newsprint, which also witnessed a 14.5% decrease to $554.1 per ton, according to Lesprom Analytics data.
Despite the overall decrease, Russia has strengthened its dominant position as China's primary newsprint supplier. Accounting for a staggering 97.3% of total imports in Q1 2023, Russian imports saw a significant year-on-year increase of 51.3%, totalling 100.3 thousand tons.
Imports from South Korea plummeted by 76.5% to 1.99 thousand tons. Similarly, Sweden’s exports to China dwindled by a significant 91.5% to 0.606 thousand tons.
