Q3 Paper Outlook — Paper Thin Market
"Go2Paper offers a great solution for us to maximize revenues from our excess paper," asserts Larry Catani, vice president of purchasing at Mail-Well. "We are looking forward to expanding this service to all of our printing plants, allowing them to free up working capital and provide faster inventory turns."
Earlier this year, the service was expanded to handle sheet grades in addition to web rolls. The stocks offered cover the standard grades, ranging from coated freesheet to uncoated groundwoods, reports Mike Conran, CEO of Go2Paper. "It's mostly prime paper and in great condition (i.e., still mill wrapped), but offered at a discount," he says.
Conran contends such resources will actually become more valuable to printers as the paper market tightens up.
Paper Goes Digital
In another development on the digital front, papiNet—the global electronic standards initiative of the paper and forest products industry—has released six additional business documents within the XML-based standard. The messages added include Product Quality, Product Performance, Complaint, Complaint Response, Planning and Availability. Additionally, the Information Request message has been updated to include the ability to request Availability information.
These messages join the existing 16-message suite that is designed to enable the paper industry and its customers to electronically communicate business transactions involved in the procurement, order fulfillment and inventory management processes. As an organization, papiNet reportedly will now focus its efforts on increasing implementation of the standard beyond the 80 companies currently using it. Complete documentation, along with the schemas for the published messages, is available on the papiNet Website, www.papinet.org.
