PAPER

Newsprint Producers Cut Prices: Firms in North America are lowering prices for their biggest customers 6% to about $660 a metric ton from $700, according to industry analysts. Bob Tait, a spokesman for Abitibi-Price Inc., confirmed that some of the Toronto-based newsprint giant’s customers will start paying lower prices as of June 1. The latest price decline is the second since April, when prices fell about 5% to $700 a metric ton for big publishers. Tait said Abitibi-Price hopes market conditions will enable prices to stick at the new level for the rest of the year. Despite downtime taken by many mills to help curb inventories, there’s “still some softness in the marketplace,” he said. Many publishers had built up inventories as a way of hedging against further increases as prices soared in 1995. Weak orders forced newsprint producers to scrap a 7% price increase that had been scheduled for April 1. Some analysts predict that newsprint prices will slide further in coming months.