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Newspapers -- Paper chase
報紙——追紙
Soaring newsprint costs make life even harder
飛漲的新聞紙價讓日子變得更加艱難
“It’s like tasering an elderly person who’s already on a pacemaker,” says a British newspaper boss of the newsprint market, where prices have risen by over 50% in a matter of months.
“這就像電擊一個已經戴著起搏器的老人，”新聞紙市場的一位英國報業老板說，新聞紙的價格在幾個月內已上漲了50%以上。
The cost of paper that feeds into presses around the world is rising to record highs, pushing up expenses for newspapers from Mumbai to Sydney.
世界各地印刷廠喂給印刷機的紙張的成本正升至創紀錄的高點，報紙價格也隨之上升，從孟買到悉尼。
When times were good, before ads shifted online, newspapers had a supportive partnership with paper mills.
在廣告轉移到線上之前，經濟狀況良好的時候，報紙商與造紙廠有著相互支持的合作關系。
As ads departed and circulations fell, relations became more transactional.
隨著廣告減少、發行量下降，雙方的關系變得更具交易性。
They are now at the shouting stage.
如今，他們相互沖對方叫嚷著。
Paper mills had the worst of it for years as newspapers reduced pagination, went wholly digital or shut for good.
這些年來，報紙頁數減少、完全轉向數字化或著干脆倒閉，造紙廠遭受了最嚴重的打擊。
The papers were able to hammer down the cost of newsprint from firms fighting for business as demand declined.
當需求下降時，報紙商能夠跟那些爭奪業務的公司壓低新聞紙的成本。
Price-taking paper mills suffered in silence.
接受出價的造紙廠默默承受著損失。
Many hesitated to shut massive machines costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
許多人對關閉這些耗資數億美元的巨型機器猶豫不決。
That hesitance has disappeared; mills are taking out newsprint capacity and diversifying.
猶豫不再；造紙廠正在削減新聞紙產能，實現多元化。
Norske Skog, a Norwegian pulp and paper firm, said in June it would close its 66-year-old Tasman Mill in New Zealand, for example.
例如，挪威紙漿和造紙公司Norske Skog在6月份表示，將關閉其在新西蘭擁有66年歷史的塔斯曼造紙廠。
Many mills are converting machines to make packaging for e-commerce.
許多工廠正在改造機器，為電子商務生產包裝。
UPM, a Finnish firm, announced this year the sale of its Shotton newsprint mill in Wales to a Turkish maker of containerboard and packaging.
芬蘭公司UPM今年宣布將其位于威爾士的Shotton新聞紙廠出售給一家土耳其紙板和包裝制造商。
For JCS Volga, a Russian mill, newsprint used to account for 70% of production; now half of what it makes is packaging.
對于俄羅斯的JCS Volga工廠來說，新聞紙過去占其產量的70%；現在它生產的一半產品是包裝。
The mills “moved from being price-takers to being capable co-participants in a declining market,” says Tim Woods of IndustryEdge, a research firm for Australia and New Zealand’s forestry and paper industries.
澳大利亞和新西蘭林業和造紙業研究公司IndustryEdge的蒂姆·伍茲表示，這些造紙廠“在不斷下滑的市場中，從價格接受者轉變成為了有能力的合作參與者”。
The pandemic, with people working from home, meant even fewer newspaper purchases, which depressed demand for newsprint again and increased the pain for paper suppliers.
疫情下人們在家工作，意味著報紙購買量降低，這再次壓低了對新聞紙的需求，增加了紙張供應商的痛苦。
In the past 24 months European mills have responded by shutting almost a fifth of their newsprint capacity, says a buyer for a large British newspaper group.
英國一家大型報業集團的一位買家表示，在過去的24個月里，歐洲報業工廠作出反應削減了近五分之一的新聞紙產能。
Then economies reopened.
隨后，經濟重新開放。
Newsprint demand shot up.
新聞紙需求激增。
That, combined with much reduced capacity and coupled with soaring energy prices, has resulted in a price shock.
再加上產能大幅下降，另外還有能源價格飆升，這些導致了價格劇烈震動。
Particularly controversial are energy surcharges that some paper suppliers are seeking to pass on.
尤其具有爭議的是一些紙張供應商試圖轉嫁出去的能源附加費。
Newspaper firms reckon this amounts to breaking contracts.
報業公司認為這相當于違約。
European newspapers will have to pay newsprint prices that are 50-70% higher in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the year before.
2022年第一季度，歐洲報紙將不得不支付比去年同期高出50%-70%的新聞紙價格。
As for their counterparts in Asia and Oceania, they are facing prices around 25% to 45% above their usual level.
至于亞洲和大洋洲的同行，他們面臨的價格比正常水平高出約25%至45%。
Kenya’s Nation Media Group is paying around $840 per tonne, compared with $600 at most in the past, says Dorine Ogolo, a procurement manager at the firm.
肯尼亞國家傳媒集團的采購經理多琳·奧戈羅表示，該公司目前支付的價格約為每噸840美元，而過去每噸最多600美元。
North American prices went up earlier, and more gradually; contracts are fixed monthly rather than half-yearly.
北美的價格上漲得更早，也更緩慢；合約是按月簽的，而不是以半年為周期。
But there, too, newsprint prices are 20-30% higher in 2021 than in 2020.
但在那里，2021年的新聞紙價格也比2020年高出20%-30%。
Germany’s print and media industry association has warned that mills are going to force newspapers to dump paper editions, hurting each other in the process.
德國印刷和媒體行業協會警告稱，紙廠將迫使報紙商放棄紙質版本，這樣會給彼此都造成傷害。
“It’s about the famous branch that both of them are sitting on,” it said recently.
該協會最近說：“雙方現在處于同一條船上。”
But mills can sell packaging instead.
但紙廠可以轉而銷售包裝。
“We’re not going to save the publishing industry by being unprofitable ourselves,” says a mill executive in North America.
“如果我們自己不盈利，我們就無法拯救出版業，”北美一家紙廠的高管說。
For some publishers, price rises will wipe out profits.
對于一些出版商來說，價格上漲將抹去利潤。
They will need to do further restructuring involving axing titles and layoffs.
他們將需要進行進一步的重組，包括減少職位和裁員。
Iwan Le Moine of EMGE, a British paper-industry consultancy, expects a big increase in 2022 of the number of papers that shut compared with a typical year.
英國造紙業咨詢公司EMGE的伊萬·勒梅因預計，與正常年份相比，2022年關閉的紙廠數量將大幅增加。
That will lower demand and nudge the market back towards equilibrium.
這將降低需求，并推動市場回歸平衡。
But newspapers will have more hard conversations about paper, full stop, says Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis, a research firm.
但研究公司Enders Analysis的道格拉斯·麥凱布表示，報紙將會有更多關于紙張的艱難交流。
More digital adrenaline is one possible riposte to the paper mills’ tasers.
更多的數字腎上腺素可能是對造紙廠電擊的一種反擊。
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