Moody’s: Latin American expansion challenges European forest industry companies

Capacity growth in Latin America’s paper, packaging and forest products sector is reshaping the industry’s competitive structure, widening the gap in credit quality with European producers, according to a Moody’s analysis. Producers such as Suzano S.A., Klabin S.A., CMPC and Arauco are adding capacity at a scale that is difficult to match elsewhere. The new mills, concentrated in Brazil and Chile, are built around export flows and designed to operate at the lower end of the global cost curve. Moody’s points to a set of structural factors underpinning this position: fast-growing ...