Global tissue demand was highly uneven by region in May, according to EMGE’s latest Market Highlights, and the split runs deeper than a simple regional slowdown. In Western Europe and North America, demand fell moderately as prices stopped rising and buyers stepped back from building inventory. In China, Japan and Korea, the picture looks like the opposite: official production figures point to double-digit year-on-year volume growth.
That growth is not being pulled by demand. EMGE’s sources in China say mills are running their machines to keep them running, even where that means selling below profitable levels. China added almost 400,000 tonnes a year of new tissue capacity in the second half of 2025, and a meaningful share of that new output is going straight into mill inventories rather than into consumption. Tissue demand itself is one of the least volatile categories there is, households, offices and care facilities don’t suddenly use much more of it without a health crisis, so the reported growth doesn’t square with underlying consumption. Asian prices had already peaked in February and were softening again well before May, a sign that mills are driving the growth rather than shoppers.
Operating ratios point to the same imbalance from a different angle. Western Europe ran at an 80% operating ratio in May and North America at 85%, both consistent with the softer demand backdrop in those regions. China, Japan and Korea ran at just 71%, and the rest of the world at 69%, low ratios that sit awkwardly next to the reported production growth and point to capacity running ahead of what the market can actually absorb. For buyers, the read is that Asian tissue supply looks more available than the headline growth numbers suggest, while Western Europe and North America stay better balanced between supply and the demand that is actually there.
