The biggest offer of cellulose in the market is pushing down its international price, further complicating the export scenario of Uruguayalready resentful by the falls of the agricultural production as a result of the extreme drought.
The productive increase in Chile this first quarter, from the modernization and expansion of the Plant Arauco), added to the imminent commissioning of the plant PSU 2with a production capacity of 2 million tons per day, would put downward pressure on the price of a biopolymer that has already registered decreases in its values in the main ports of the world.
in the ports of Europeshort-fiber pulp traded at $1,280 per ton in the last two weeks, the lowest price of the year, while long-fiber pulp also fell to $1,373 per ton.
government agency Uruguay XXI had stated in its annual report that after the start-up of UPM 2, pulp exports would skyrocket by 50%, exceeding the turnover for bovine meat, and meaning an inflow of foreign currency in the order of 2,606 million dollars. However, income expectations and export volumes are now equally threatened.
Will the losses from the drought be offset?
Cellulose exports –which set a record last year- are key to maintaining stable income from sales of Uruguayan goods abroad when a strong blow to the commercialization of agricultural products as a result of the drought.
It should be remembered that, in the previous drought in 2018, the total increase in exports made from free zones, according to Uruguay XXI, was barely 0.4% totaling 9,088 million dollars. But this was affected by the poor harvest of the soy since, had it not been for this, exports would have increased by 9%.
At that time, the total exports of the oilseed was 526 million dollars, 56% less than in 2017.
2022 closed with a record of agro-industrial exports exceeding 10,000 million dollars, where economic growth was also achieved with a gross domestic product of around 5%.
Source: Ambito
