The race to lower GSM is a trap. Here’s a smarter way. In China’s tissue market, competition has pushed GSM down to 9.8 — and some products now go as high as 6 plies. The goal is simple: lighter, cheaper, sell on price. But mid‑tier factories — too small for heavy marketing spend, yet unwilling

Mixed loading: The hard part isn’t supply. It’s what happens after the container arrives. In my last post, I mentioned we are testing a new approach amid a challenging market. Here it is: combining light cargo and heavy cargo inside one container. On the supply side, I can make this work. Tissue paper is bulky

A follow-up on the price increase — and three forces converging right now. Last time I wrote about a mill trying to push through a 100 RMB/ton increase. It failed. Clients simply stopped picking up orders. Now I want to explain why — because the forces at play go beyond one mill’s decision. First, a

Today has a good news, a few weeks ago, we suggested to one of our Vietnamese clients: “Instead of just buying parent rolls, why not look upstream — into woodchips?” He didn’t have the capital to go big. So he started small. Using his Chinese background, he began connecting large Chinese buyers with local wood

Quick follow-up to last week’s price hike discussion. In my previous post, I mentioned the 100 RMB/ton price increase. Interestingly, one of the paper mills we work with tried to push it through last week. The result: most clients chose to wait and see — orders were put on hold. Within days, the mill backed