(note: all respondents are confidential; the software is programmed in such a way that neither we nor anyone else can determine who responded)
Last week we asked: "Do you think the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will affect the economics of your mill (in any way) within the next five years?"
Yes 69%
No 31%
Our follow on question was to determine the location of respondents' companies:
82% North America
12% Asia
6% Oceania
Other comments:
I'm employed by a property insurance company having many pulp and paper mill clients. I believe all will be adversely impacted. I also believe the cost of driving my autos and heating my home will be artificially increased.
The fall out will affect all of our decisions from raw material supply to energy considerations. The gulf area is a great producers of the material for non wovens and diaper material. Also, my favorite shrimp will be priced out of sight.
I think that all the wacko environmentalists are loving the oil spill so that they can point to it for the rest of eternity when they explain why all the inevitable restrictions on oil drilling are needed (even though restrictions are neither needed nor the solution to future spill prevention).
Increased oversight and compliance costs will increase energy costs directly. Less access to new oil will increase energy costs indirectly.
If nothing else, the price of fuel (gasoline and diesel) have already gone up. This will affect the cost of delivery of all of our raw materials to us and our cost to deliver our products to our customers.
It surely will impact enhanced oil recovery exploration cost - potentially delaying some key new projects and driving up the price of oil.
Oil as an energy resource will be negatively impacted, and the economic impact will reverberate through other energy sources as well, negatively impacting mills as the costs of energy increase.
Want to be heard on other subjects? Be sure to watch for "Paperitalo Second Tuesday Surveys."
