paperloop.com
HELSINKI, Aug 14, 2001 (Reuters) _ Producers' pulp stocks in Finland, Sweden, the United States and Canada rose 4,000 tonnes to just over 1.78 million tonnes in July, increasing less than the long_term average for the month, a Finnish industry official said on Tuesday. 
Stocks of market pulp in the North American and Scandinavian (Norscan) countries rose in three out of the four producer countries, but a 36,000 tonne drop in Canadian stocks to 790,000 tonnes helped keep the end_July level almost flat on end_June. 
"Inventories were practically unchanged," said Mikko Tahvanainen of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. "Things went better than expected." 
The 10_year average increase for July is between 150,000 and 160,000 tonnes he said. 
Market pulp stocks are an indicator of future trends in prices of the key raw material, which in turn affect paper prices. High pulp inventories indicate downward pressure and low stocks upside for prices. 
Persistently high stocks and low demand this year have put pulp prices under pressure, and the benchmark price for northern bleached softwood pulp has fallen 36 percent this year to below $460 per tonne. 
Pulp stocks in Finland rose 15,000 tonnes by the end of July from end_June to 100,000 tonnes, while Swedish pulp inventories rose 13,000 tonnes to 380,000 tonnes, Tahvanainen said. 
U.S. producers' pulp stocks rose 12,000 tonnes in July to 514,000 tonnes, he said. 
The end_July stocks level of 1,784,000 tonnes amounted to 27 days' of output, unchanged on June, he said. 
Norscan producers' pulp shipments rose by 5,000 tonnes in July to 1,742,000 tonnes, he said. 
Earlier on Tuesday, the world's biggest market pulp producer, Sodra of Sweden, posted a 53 percent drop in first_half profits to 443 million Swedish crowns ($43.11 million) due to weak pulp prices but said it saw prices bottoming out. 
But Sodra also said the global economic slowdown would also reduce demand in the second half of the year, which could involve continued capacity curtailments in the paper and pulp industry during the autumn.