Shortages

February 15, 2026

More Shortages

I have been mentioning shortages for a couple of months. I have one more to cover. This is a shortage of money in the CAPEX account.

One of the services we provide for our advertising clients is a quarterly amalgamation of the financial statements of the companies in the PaperMoney 40 (PM40). You can see this in each issue of PaperMoney (www.globalpapermoney.com).

This is the time of the quarter when we put this document together. A pattern that seems to be showing up now, when one compares results quarter to quarter, is that money seems to be being pulled out of the CAPEX account to make free cash flow look better.

You may work for a company where you are seeing this directly. If so, you are not alone, it is happening to others.

What it may mean though, if you have some CAPEX allocation, is that vendor prices may be softening. I am saying it MAY mean this not that it does mean this. Worth getting an update on key prices, however. When cash is not available, vendors suffer and attempt to move product by lowering prices.

By the way, I come to mills and talk to various departments about many subjects. To arrange my custom visit to your mill, just email me at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com or call me at 678-206-6010.

Young Engineering Manager of the Year, call for nominations

We are looking for an individual who has done an extraordinary project, one that almost defies belief. Its extraordinary features can be schedule, technology, cost or all three. There is an age limit on the manager eligible for this award: they must be under 35 years old when they completed the project.

We have often gotten nominees that go something like this, "I nominate Joe because he has done a great job of running our engineering department for the last fifteen years." Quite frankly, we are not interested in such nominees.

However, if you know someone who has led a very exceptional project in the recent past (the last two or three years) and meets our age requirement, we want to know about it. We want to honor them and hold them up as an example for Engineering Managers in every pulp and paper mill around the world.

Just send your nomination, with as much details as you can provide, to jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com. We will seriously consider it.

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