By Mathieu Dion and Thomas Seal
President Donald Trump’s promised tariffs on softwood lumber risk disrupting the supply chain for something nobody wants to be caught without: toilet paper.
The Trump administration plans to almost double duties on Canadian softwood lumber to 27%, with the possibility of additional levies pushing the rate to more than 50%. While Trump advocates for new tariffs partly to bolster US manufacturing, they may also hit the availability of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp, or NBSK, a key component in making toilet paper and paper towels.
US Tariff Threats Put Upward Pressure on Pulp Costs
Prices of northern bleached softwood kraft in North America
NBSK constitutes about 30% of standard US bathroom tissue and half of a typical paper towel, and is currently sourced primarily from Canada, said Brian McClay, chairman of TTOBMA, which tracks the global pulp market. He added that the US imported about 2 million tons of Canadian NBSK last year, highlighting the longstanding reliance of American paper-goods producers on pulp from their northern neighbor.
“Some of these mills in the United States, some of the big branded products, not only want softwood pulp from Canada, they want softwood pulp from this particular mill — they’ve been using it for 30 years and they will not change,” McClay said.
“If Canadian pulp mills close because they don’t have the fiber supply, I can’t think of any other option for them — they just can’t switch the recipe around,” he said.
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