How the company is finding opportunity in a shrinking market
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The story surrounding North American printing and writing paper for much of the last decade has been about one word: contraction. Demand has continued to face pressure from digital transformation and competition from foreign suppliers, while mills have responded by closing machines, converting assets to packaging grades, or reducing the scope of their operations.
The numbers show just how significant that adjustment has become. According to the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), US printing-writing capacity fell 13.9% in 2025 to 7.7 million tons, down from nearly 18 million tons in 2015. Yet operating rates improved from 76.8% in 2024 to 82.8% in 2025, an important reminder that the market isn’t simply disappearing. Instead, supply is being rationalized around a smaller base of demand.
That trend has continued into 2026. Industry reporting citing Fastmarkets projects North American uncoated freesheet (UFS) capacity will decline by another 366,000 tons this year, while demand is expected to fall by a smaller 223,000 tons. In other words, supply is tightening faster than demand itself.
But not every mill is responding the same way.
Phoenix Paper’s Wickliffe mill (Source: Phoenix Paper).
A Different Kind of Rationalization
In July of this year, Finch announced it would discontinue in-house pulp production and instead purchase all its pulp from outside suppliers. The company has said it can now purchase pulp for less than it costs to manufacture internally, while an eight-figure investment will support expanded pulp-receiving capabilities along with improvements to its paper machines and energy infrastructure.
For a mill dealing with aging pulping and recovery infrastructure, that kind of move makes sense. Stepping away from integrated pulp production can reduce capital requirements and allow investment to instead be concentrated on papermaking assets and higher-value product development, something that becomes increasingly important in a mature market facing continued demand pressure.
There is, however, another side to that equation. Relying more heavily on market pulp means greater exposure to external fiber pricing, transportation costs, trade conditions, and supplier availability.
And Finch isn’t operating in a vacuum. Across North America, mills continue to rethink the economics of integration while others close capacity, convert machines to different grades, or exit white-paper manufacturing altogether.
Phoenix Paper Takes Another Path
Then there’s Phoenix Paper.
Its Wickliffe, Kentucky mill is certainly no stranger to industry disruption. Originally started by Westvaco in 1969, the mill closed in 2015 before being purchased by Shanying International in 2018 and restarted under Phoenix Paper.
Since then, Phoenix has continued investing in the facility while operating it as a fully integrated producer of uncoated freesheet, converting papers, and market pulp.
Today, the company says the Wickliffe mill produces more pulp than it consumes internally, with the surplus sold into the open market. That puts Phoenix in an increasingly uncommon position at a time when other producers are reducing or eliminating their own pulp operations.
Phoenix is also putting money back into the site. According to information provided by the company, millions of dollars have been invested across the Wickliffe facility, including reliability improvements in the wood yard, steam plant, pulp mill, paper machine, and automated packaging operations. New rewinders are also being installed in 2026 to improve roll quality, speed, and converting efficiency across several grades.
But perhaps more interesting than simply how much Phoenix is investing is where the company sees opportunities for growth.
Finding Growth Inside a Declining Market
Conventional printing and writing paper remain under structural pressure, but not every application is declining at the same pace.
High-speed production inkjet, for example, continues to create opportunities in commercial print, direct mail, transactional communications, publishing, and other applications where personalization and shorter production cycles are increasingly important.
Phoenix entered the commercial inkjet paper market in 2022 and completed its Phoenix Inkjet product line launch in 2023, including treated Phoenix Premier™, Phoenix Premier Book™ and untreated Phoenix Preferred™ offerings. The company now identifies its treated Phoenix Premier™ grade as its fastest-growing product.
That helps add some context to Phoenix’s continued commitment to white paper. Investing in the category in 2026 doesn’t necessarily mean betting on the same demand that drove the market 10 or 20 years ago. For mills that remain committed to printing and writing grades, long-term viability will increasingly depend on finding the applications where print continues to demonstrate value and developing products around them.
Phoenix also says it added three sales representatives and a marketing manager in 2026 while increasing its production focus on UFS, inkjet, envelope, and specialty papers. It’s an expansion of both its production and commercial efforts at a time when much of the broader market conversation continues to center on consolidation and cost reduction.
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
There isn’t necessarily one right way for a paper mill to respond to what’s happening in the market.
For some, the better business decision may be to exit an uncompetitive asset, convert a machine, or purchase pulp rather than continue producing it internally. For others, there may still be value in maintaining an integrated operation and putting investment behind the applications where demand remains strong enough to support it. Every mill has its own cost structure, equipment, fiber access, and customer base to consider.
What makes Phoenix Paper interesting is that its strategy runs against much of the current industry narrative.
At a time when US printing-writing capacity continues to contract, Phoenix is actively putting capital behind integrated production, white grades, and inkjet-focused growth. Whether that proves to be a model other mills can follow is another matter entirely.
Phoenix Paper’s Wickliffe mill (admin building) (Source: Phoenix Paper).
Could Phoenix’s approach signal that there is still room for investment and growth within a smaller North American white-paper market? Or will the Wickliffe mill increasingly become an exception as the number of integrated producers continues to shrink?
Either way, the market that emerges from this period of contraction will almost certainly look different from the one that entered it. And as supply continues to tighten, the decisions mills make today about fiber, equipment, and where they choose to invest will go a long way toward determining what the North American paper supply chain looks like tomorrow.
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