Regardless of the encouraging reports from China's National Statistics Bureau that total earnings of the country’s paper production and converting industries grew 22.4% year-on-year to RMB70.72 billion in the first ten months of 2021, activities of China's paper market, except market pulp futures which surprisingly spiraled, began to slow down and showed a state of weariness as the year entered into its countdown time. These days, price changes in recovered paper, either positive or negative, lacked support from active transactions. Major corrugated paper manufacturers are trying to attract orders and reduce inventories in the last few days, and are offering preferential prices of up to 200 yuan, but they have failed to make waves in the market. The already weak demand, coupled with the recent re-emergence of the epidemic, has made the entire market seem dull and distracted. In view of this, many paper and board producers, especially those mid-to-small mills in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, have announced their suspension of production and work, and holiday downtimes ahead of schedules. It is expected that this situation will continue until after the turn of New Year Day or even after the Spring Festival.

The New Year's bell is about to ring and people are hoping that the industry will grow more vigorously in 2022. However, it remains to be seen whether the market will be at a high boom and deliver positive and beautiful results as it did in the first three quarters of 2021.