Fire Causes Cardboard Emergency in South Korea

Raw materials to make corrugated cardboard products is in short supply throughout East Asia after a fire Tuesday at a paper mill in South Korea disrupted the supply chain.

Daeyang Paper in Gyeonnggi, about 50 kilometers southeast of Seoul, accounts for about 7% of the annual supply of corrugated paper in South Korea, according to the Korea Corrugated Paper Packaging Industry Cooperative.

Damage from the fire at Daeyang is estimated at nearly $1.25 million in U.S. dollars, equal to nearly 55% of the company’s sales last year, local media report.

The cooperative is expected to import 500 tons of the material for corrugated paper from Japan on an emergency basis. Taiwan is already exporting to China in such large quantities that it could not provide anything for South Korea.

Changing environmental regulations had already reduced the monthly import of wastepaper used to make corrugated paper by 34% prior to the Daeyang fire.

The cooperative is urging South Korean companies exporting to other nations to prioritize domestic demand in the near future.