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Notes
What the specifications mean once a container is actually moving: where two grades diverge, how material outside a specification is priced, which terms decide who carries what, and what settles an argument at the discharge port. Written for people who buy and sell this material, not for a general audience.
On an offer sheet the two grades differ by one digit. In a mill they behave differently enough that contracting the wrong one is a recurring source of claims. What double-sorting removes, why the specification carries two tolerance figures rather than one, and the four habits that prevent most disputes.
17 October 2026 · Read the note → Prime Pulp · NomenclatureTwo of those letters come from Japanese and describe leaves rather than wood. Where the two conventions are straight translations of each other, where NBSK and BEK look like synonyms but are narrower, and the three lines that make an inquiry impossible to misread.
17 October 2026 · Read the note → Off GradeA tonnage that fails one customer’s specification is rarely bad fibre. The six defects that put material off grade, why end uses are not interchangeable, how the discount is actually calculated against the prime grade — and why an optimistic description costs the seller money rather than making it.
17 October 2026 · Read the note → Waste Paper · ISRI PS-2013Both grades come out of offices and both are groundwood-free, yet their tolerances differ by a factor of two. Colour is the dividing line. What each definition actually permits, what it costs at the sorting line, and which one a deinking mill should be contracting.
20 October 2026 · Read the note → Waste Paper · ISRI PS-2013ISRI PS-2013 contains three mixed paper grades, and their prohibitive limits run from 2% down to half of one per cent. What separates Residential, Soft and Hard, what the 10% groundwood threshold actually does to a furnish, and why a contract that says only "mixed paper" has not specified anything.
22 October 2026 · Read the note → Contracts · QualityPaper absorbs and releases water, and weight is what gets invoiced. Why moisture produces more disputes than contamination does, what a contract needs to say beyond a maximum percentage, and why the point of measurement matters as much as the number.
24 October 2026 · Read the note → Shipping · DisputesMost claims on fibre shipments are not caused by bad material. They are caused by a description that was never a specification. The five things that actually trigger a claim, the evidence that settles one, and the prevention that costs nothing at the offer stage.
27 October 2026 · Read the note → Shipping · TermsThree letters decide who books the vessel, who pays freight, who insures the cargo and at which moment the loss becomes the buyer’s problem — and those are not the same question. What each term obliges, where risk actually transfers, and the well-known reason FOB fits containers badly.
29 October 2026 · Read the note → Shipping · DocumentsThe cargo moves on a vessel; the ownership moves on paper. What each of the standard documents actually does, which single one is a title to the goods, why an original is sometimes couriered and sometimes not, and how a one-character error holds a container at the port.
3 November 2026 · Read the note → Commercial · TermsBetween the moment a container leaves and the moment money settles, somebody is exposed. What T/T, documentary credits and documentary collections each secure, what they cost, and why a first shipment with a new counterparty is structured differently from the tenth.
5 November 2026 · Read the note → Logistics · SourcingThe ocean leg to Asia is a competitive, transparent cost. The truck ride from an inland warehouse to the port is neither, and it is frequently the larger number. Why booking from a convenient port kills lots that would otherwise trade, and what the nearest-port principle changes about an offer.
7 November 2026 · Read the note → Stock LotPrime grades have a reference price. A pallet of mixed reels from a converter that changed specification four years ago has nothing of the kind, and still has to become a number. The four components of the valuation, and what a seller can do in an afternoon to move it.
10 November 2026 · Read the note → Prime Pulp · SpecialtyBoth are sold by the metric ton alongside BSKP and BHKP, and neither is destined for a paper machine. What each is actually specified on, why strength and brightness are the wrong measures, and what an inquiry needs to state to come back with a usable offer.
12 November 2026 · Read the note →Most of what gets written about recovered fibre is written for people outside the trade. These notes assume you already know what a bale is, and spend the space on the parts that actually cause problems: tolerance figures, descriptions that do not survive inspection, and the gap between what a grade name suggests and what the specification says.
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