Overall that dollar amount reflects a 13.2% uptick for all exporting countries since 2017 when paper shipments were valued at $161.7 billion.
From 2020 to 2021, the value of overall paper exports increased by 14.8% from $159.5 billion during 2020.
The top 5 paper exporters are Germany, mainland China, United States of America, Sweden and Italy. That subgroup generated 42.2% of globally exported paper in 2021.
From a continental perspective, European countries sold the highest value among paper exporters during 2021 with shipments valued at $103.7 billion (56.7% of overall paper exports). In second place were exporters in Asia at 26.2% of worldwide paper deliveries ahead of North America at 13.3%.
Smaller percentages came from Latin America (2.3%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (0.9%), then Oceania (0.6%) led by Australia and New Zealand.
For research purposes, the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 48 for paper and paperboard. Included are articles made from pulp, paper and paperboard like boxes.
Paper Exports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of paper during 2021.
- Germany: US$22.8 billion (12.5% of total paper exports)
- China: $21.8 billion (11.9%)
- United States: $15.3 billion (8.4%)
- Sweden: $9.2 billion (5%)
- Italy: $8.1 billion (4.4%)
- Finland: $7.9 billion (4.3%)
- Canada: $7.2 billion (3.9%)
- France: $6.9 billion (3.8%)
- Netherlands: $6.7 billion (3.6%)
- Poland: $6.1 billion (3.3%)
- Austria: $5.3 billion (2.9%)
- Belgium: $5.04 billion (2.8%)
- Spain: $4.99 billion (2.7%)
- Indonesia: $4.2 billion (2.3%)
- Russia: $3.2 billion (1.7%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 73.5% of international paper exports in 2021.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing paper exporters since 2020 were: Russia (up 30.8%), Netherlands (up 27.5%), Spain (up 25.8%) and Belgium (up 24.8%).
Indonesia posted the lowest increase (up 0.7%) year over year.
Countries Generating Highest Trade Surpluses from Paper
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports for paper during 2021. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus between the value of each country’s paper exports and its import purchases for that same commodity.
- China: US$13.6 billion (net export surplus up 0.3% since 2020)
- Germany: $8.2 billion (up 28.2%)
- Sweden: $7.4 billion (up 8.8%)
- Finland: $7.2 billion (up 15.9%)
- Austria: $2.7 billion (up 22.7%)
- Indonesia: $2.7 billion (down -7.9%)
- Italy: $1.9 billion (up 11.9%)
- Canada: $1.2 billion (up 22.3%)
- Brazil: $1.1 billion (up 2.7%)
- Portugal: $949.9 million (up 18.7%)
- India: $803.7 million (reversing a -$102.5 million deficit)
- Spain: $598.6 million (up 66.2%)
- South Korea: $455 million (down -23.7%)
- Russia: $447.9 million (up 330.8%)
- Laos: $389.3 million (reversing an -$89.3 million deficit)
Mainland China generated the highest surplus in the international trade of paper. In turn, this positive cashflow confirms China’s strong competitive advantage for this specific product category.
Countries Causing Largest Trade Deficits from Paper
The following countries posted the highest negative net exports for paper during 2021. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the deficit between the value of each country’s paper import purchases and its exports for that same commodity.
- Mexico: -US$4.3 billion (net export deficit up 30.6% since 2020)
- United Kingdom: -$4.1 billion (up 0.8%)
- United States of America: -$2.4 billion (up 29.3%)
- France: -$2.4 billion (up 1.1%)
- Vietnam: -$1.7 billion (up 64.8%)
- Australia: -$1.4 billion (up 4.5%)
- Philippines: -$1.3 billion (up 26.4%)
- Switzerland: -$1.2 billion (up 11.0%)
- United Arab Emirates: -$969.6 million (reversing a -$485.8 million deficit)
- Saudi Arabia: -$916.6 million (up 4.2%)
- Ireland: -$860.7 million (up 3.0%)
- Romania: -$850.4 million (up 16.0%)
- Greece: -$809.5 million (up 16.9%)
- Denmark: -$749.9 million (up 44.9%)
- Bangladesh: -$745.1 million (up 29.4%)
Overtaking the United Kingdom in 2021, Mexico endured the highest deficit in the international trade of paper. In turn, these negative cashflows confirm both trading entities’ strong competitive disadvantage for this specific product category. This insight signals opportunities for paper-supplying countries to help satisfy the powerful demand.
Paper Exporting Companies
Below are global paper-processing conglomerates that represent the largest players in the worldwide paper market trade. Shown within parenthesis is the country where the company is headquartered.
- DS Smith (United Kingdom)
- International Paper (United States)
- Nippon Paper (Japan)
- Oji Paper (Japan)
- RockTenn (United States)
- Sappi (South Africa)
- Smurfit Kappa Group (Ireland)
- Stora Enzo (Finland)
- Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (Sweden)
- UPM (Finland)
Companies are sorted by paper and board production by weight based on predicted 2017 tonnage from 2017 final statistics.
Searchable List of Paper Exporting Countries
The top 100 export nations supplying paper account for 99.9% of the total value of exported paper during 2021.
| Rank | Exporter | Paper Exports (US$) | 2020-1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Germany | $22,798,135,000 | +19.1% |
| 2. | China | $21,763,998,000 | +4.2% |
| 3. | United States | $15,339,370,000 | +11.2% |
| 4. | Sweden | $9,186,797,000 | +10.5% |
| 5. | Italy | $8,083,826,000 | +20.3% |
| 6. | Finland | $7,891,135,000 | +15.7% |
| 7. | Canada | $7,215,237,000 | +12.5% |
| 8. | France | $6,887,501,000 | +20.5% |
| 9. | Netherlands | $6,652,035,000 | +27.5% |
| 10. | Poland | $6,095,089,000 | +21% |
| 11. | Austria | $5,257,345,000 | +17.6% |
| 12. | Belgium | $5,036,855,000 | +24.8% |
| 13. | Spain | $4,987,626,000 | +25.8% |
| 14. | Indonesia | $4,221,351,000 | +0.7% |
| 15. | Russia | $3,152,047,000 | +30.8% |
| 16. | India | $2,954,693,000 | +68.8% |
| 17. | Japan | $2,933,056,000 | +21.5% |
| 18. | United Kingdom | $2,862,307,000 | +2.5% |
| 19. | South Korea | $2,681,155,000 | +7% |
| 20. | Portugal | $2,374,486,000 | +23.4% |
| 21. | Turkey | $2,163,005,000 | +25.4% |
| 22. | Czech Republic | $2,084,321,000 | +17.6% |
| 23. | Brazil | $1,905,405,000 | +9% |
| 24. | Mexico | $1,876,104,000 | +8.5% |
| 25. | Vietnam | $1,808,904,000 | +29.9% |
| 26. | Taiwan | $1,561,466,000 | +9.7% |
| 27. | Singapore | $1,497,672,000 | +8.5% |
| 28. | Thailand | $1,470,022,000 | +6% |
| 29. | Malaysia | $1,409,420,000 | +51.4% |
| 30. | Slovakia | $1,151,395,000 | +27.8% |
| 31. | Hungary | $1,136,985,000 | +13.5% |
| 32. | Switzerland | $1,064,651,000 | +15.7% |
| 33. | Hong Kong | $1,051,638,000 | +13.6% |
| 34. | Denmark | $923,488,000 | +4.7% |
| 35. | Slovenia | $806,347,000 | +11.3% |
| 36. | Australia | $765,984,000 | +15.3% |
| 37. | Saudi Arabia | $685,633,000 | +14.1% |
| 38. | South Africa | $594,042,000 | +8.7% |
| 39. | Serbia | $574,522,000 | +16.9% |
| 40. | Romania | $566,843,000 | +38.2% |
| 41. | United Arab Emirates | $565,112,000 | -68% |
| 42. | Chile | $499,847,000 | -7.3% |
| 43. | Laos | $489,086,000 | +11551% |
| 44. | Luxembourg | $472,923,000 | +9% |
| 45. | Ukraine | $453,543,000 | +27.7% |
| 46. | Norway | $452,055,000 | +13.3% |
| 47. | Lithuania | $420,404,000 | +16.9% |
| 48. | Egypt | $415,033,000 | +53.2% |
| 49. | Greece | $407,468,000 | +44.7% |
| 50. | Croatia | $398,305,000 | +31.6% |
| 51. | El Salvador | $385,179,000 | +26.6% |
| 52. | Bulgaria | $361,318,000 | +15.2% |
| 53. | Guatemala | $356,030,000 | +8.6% |
| 54. | New Zealand | $299,472,000 | +3.3% |
| 55. | Belarus | $267,751,000 | +36.8% |
| 56. | Ireland | $261,427,000 | +11% |
| 57. | Colombia | $255,737,000 | +4.9% |
| 58. | Argentina | $240,285,000 | +24.5% |
| 59. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $193,500,000 | +41.4% |
| 60. | Estonia | $187,249,000 | +29.6% |
| 61. | Tunisia | $175,282,000 | +41.8% |
| 62. | Latvia | $174,703,000 | +19.1% |
| 63. | Israel | $156,495,000 | +13.3% |
| 64. | Dominican Republic | $129,304,000 | +30.9% |
| 65. | Morocco | $109,395,000 | +16.7% |
| 66. | Peru | $97,439,000 | +19.1% |
| 67. | Honduras | $93,450,000 | +21.2% |
| 68. | Philippines | $91,232,000 | -12.9% |
| 69. | Costa Rica | $72,116,000 | -15.5% |
| 70. | Tanzania | $64,354,000 | +77% |
| 71. | Pakistan | $64,290,000 | +39.2% |
| 72. | Kenya | $62,363,000 | +2.5% |
| 73. | Jordan | $62,030,000 | -41.9% |
| 74. | Kuwait | $58,259,000 | -9.9% |
| 75. | Paraguay | $52,872,000 | +36.9% |
| 76. | Albania | $51,575,000 | +8% |
| 77. | Sri Lanka | $46,943,000 | -19.7% |
| 78. | Ecuador | $44,392,000 | +99.5% |
| 79. | Senegal | $35,655,000 | +88.3% |
| 80. | Bahrain | $33,289,000 | -29% |
| 81. | Trinidad/Tobago | $30,372,000 | -58.1% |
| 82. | Ivory Coast | $27,644,000 | -65.5% |
| 83. | Uzbekistan | $27,270,000 | +118.8% |
| 84. | Kazakhstan | $26,713,000 | +35.7% |
| 85. | Cambodia | $22,744,000 | +67.9% |
| 86. | Ghana | $20,380,000 | +76.8% |
| 87. | Panama | $20,321,000 | -74.4% |
| 88. | Lebanon | $19,457,000 | -63.7% |
| 89. | Barbados | $18,018,000 | +4.8% |
| 90. | North Macedonia | $16,750,000 | -18% |
| 91. | Iran | $14,840,000 | -81.7% |
| 92. | Bangladesh | $14,335,000 | -32.3% |
| 93. | Moldova | $14,240,000 | +25.1% |
| 94. | Bolivia | $14,129,000 | +55.5% |
| 95. | Uruguay | $13,560,000 | -22.5% |
| 96. | Algeria | $13,483,000 | -2.9% |
| 97. | Fiji | $11,508,000 | +3.9% |
| 98. | Mozambique | $10,807,000 | -59.1% |
| 99. | Uganda | $10,136,000 | -40.8% |
| 100. | Mauritius | $9,744,000 | +14.8% |
Focusing on the top 100 paper exporters, the fastest growers were Laos (up 11,551% from 2020), Uzbekistan (up 118.8%), Ecuador (up 99.5%), Senegal (up 88.3%), Tanzania (up 77%), Ghana (up 76.8%) and India (up 68.8%).
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icons at the top of the above table’s columns. An entry of 0% in the right-most column means that no 2020 data is available.
See also Paper Imports by Country, Sawn Wood Exports by Country, Top Cork Exporting Countries, Top Toilet Paper Exporters by Country and Top Paint Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on July 12, 2022
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on July 12, 2022
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on July 12, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on July 12, 2022
Wikipedia, Paper. Accessed on July 12, 2022
Wikipedia, Pulp and paper industry. Accessed on July 12, 2022
