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Companies clustered in the Slovak Pulp and Paper Industry Association (ZCPP) produced 237,140 tons of paper and cardboard in the first quarter of this year. In a y/y comparison, this is 1.9 percent less. In the monitored period, the ZCPP reported a 2.1 percent drop in exports to SKK 6.291 billion. ZCPP Secretary General Juraj Dlhopolcek informed that the association reported declines in both production and exports after a longer time. This was caused by the strengthening of the Slovak currency and rising crude-oil prices.
ZCPP boosted overall sales by 6.1 percent y/y from SKK 7.068 billion in Q1 2007 to SKK 7.5 billion. This increase was accompanied by a corresponding 6.1 percent increase in labor productivity per employee. In the first quarter of 2007, an employee produced goods for SKK 1.8 million, compared with SKK 1.9 million in Q1 2008. The number of staff decreased 2 percent y/y. At the end of March 2008, the eleven companies associated in the ZCPP employed 3,766 people. They invested over SKK 172 million in the monitored period. In five successive years, the firms reported higher consumption of recycled paper from local sources and limited imports. While in 2002 the companies imported roughly half of this, it was only 12.3 percent of consumption in Q1 2008. In absolute terms, imports in Q1 2008 represented 6,581 tons.
The largest producers associated in ZCPP are Mondi Business Paper SCP, a.s. Ruzomberok; Smurfit Kappa, a.s. Sturovo; SHP Harmanec; Tento, a.s. Zilina; and Bukoza Holding, a.s. Hencovce. ZCPP members cover almost 100 percent of pulp and paper production in Slovakia and about 84 percent of overall output in the whole sector.

(EUR 1 = SKK 30.335 on June 10)