Cepi Preliminary Statistics 2025

In 2025, European paper and board production declined slightly by 1.5%, with graphic paper hardest hit. Packaging, tissue, and other segments remained relatively stable, while Europe maintained a positive trade balance. The sector’s resilience is supported by leadership in bio-based and circular materials, despite cost pressures and global competition

Preliminary statistics for 2025 released by Cepi indicate that European paper and board production decreased by 1.5%, reflecting a similar trend among most global competitors. Despite this decline, Europe has leveraged its leadership in bio-based and circular materials to create resilience in a challenging industrial landscape

The overall production drop of 1.5% continues a negative trend since 2021, highlighting the pressures faced across European manufacturing over the past five years. Factors include sluggish demand, high energy and production costs relative to global competitors, increasing regulatory burdens in Europe, geopolitical challenges, and rising trade tensions.

Graphic paper, still the most vulnerable segment, experienced a sharper decline of 7.2% in 2025. Meanwhile, packaging paper and board (+0.1%), tissue paper (-0.8%), and other paper and board (+0.4%) showed relative stability, though production remains 6.8% below the record levels of 2021.

Comparing Europe with global competitors, overall paper and board production remained almost unchanged worldwide (-0.3%). In contrast, several major producers, including the United States, Japan, Canada, and South Korea, saw larger declines in 2025, ranging from -1.9% to -5.7%. Exceptions included Brazil (+0.1%), a key pulp exporter to Europe, and China (+2.9%), which has been accelerating paper and board production since 2020.

Europe’s trade balance in paper and board, although slightly eroded with a 4.4% decrease compared to 2024, remains strongly positive, a rare position among energy-intensive sectors in Europe. Based on the most recent Eurostat data (11 months), EU paper and board exports fell by 2.2%, while imports rose by 1.4% in 2025, illustrating the EU’s fragile global competitive position.

Despite these challenges, recent Deloitte reports highlight Europe’s unmatched competitiveness in key areas, including biomass flows directed to biomaterials and the circular material use rate, driven largely by the EU’s paper and board sector.

Jori Ringman, Cepi Director General, commented: “Insufficient demand remains an important limiting factor to production. A further growth potential exists in replacing fossil-based materials, but here we face an unlevel playing field with fossil-based materials and asymmetric information guiding customer choices. Bio-based circular materials offer advantages in supply chain resilience and European competitiveness. These are reflected in the most recent Cepi statistics and other studies currently available, including Deloitte’s Antwerp Declaration Monitoring Report.”