Japanese tissue manufacturers announce new price increases

Three of Japan’s largest tissue paper makers have announced that they will apply further price increases to their products. The reasons are mainly the increase in raw material prices and the devaluation of the yen.

Daio Paper, the world’s largest manufacturer of the Elleair brand, will increase prices for toilet paper, tissues and paper towels by more than 20% starting from January 21, 2023, orders. This will be the second increase in less than one year – in March, there was already a 15% readjustment.

Oji Holdings’ Nepia line will also see an increase of over 20% from 21 January. In October of this year, the company had already announced new prices.

Nippon Paper Industries, which has a license agreement with the Kimberly-Clark Corporation to supply KleenexR and ScottieR products, increased prices in April this year and will make a new readjustment of more than 15% from February 1.

Manufacturers depend on imported pulp, the main raw material for tissue paper production, and face consecutive increases in fuel prices. Another factor is logistics, which are increasingly expensive. For this reason, companies have not been able to absorb the costs, having applied frequent price adjustments to compensate part of them.