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Office Paper Market Structure Differentiates Globally, Traditional Printing Paper Declines While Thermal Label Paper Grows
2026-06-05
The global office paper market has shown obvious structural differentiation in 2026, with completely different development trends between traditional printing and writing paper and emerging Thermal label paper. According to the latest monthly industry data released by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), the shipment volume of conventional office printing and writing paper in the United States fell by 6% year-on-year in February 2026, continuing the downward trend that has persisted for many consecutive years. The core reason for the shrinking demand for traditional office paper is the comprehensive popularization of digital office systems and electronic office solutions.
With the accelerated digital transformation of global enterprises, more and more enterprises, institutions, and government departments have realized full electronic office management. Electronic contracts, electronic invoices, online office documents, and digital archives have completely replaced a large number of traditional paper printing and copying scenarios. In addition, the widespread promotion of electronic receipts in European and American retail, catering, and service industries has further reduced the market demand for ordinary paper receipts and printed documents. The traditional office printing paper market is gradually showing a shrinking trend, and the market competition of low-end ordinary copy paper has become iNCReasingly fierce, with serious industry involution and declining profit margins.
In sharp contrast, the market demand for office thermal adhesive labels and logistics thermal printing paper is rising against the trend. In February 2026, the shipment volume of thermal shipping labels and office adhesive label paper in the US market increased by 4% year-on-year. The continuous prosperity of cross-border e-commerce is the core driving force for the growth of thermal label paper demand. The global cross-border e-commerce industry has maintained steady growth in 2026, and the explosive growth of parcel shipping, warehouse inventory management, and commodity labeling scenarios has generated a large number of rigid demand for high-quality thermal label paper. At the same time, the accelerated construction of intelligent warehouses and digital office systems for global enterprises has made office thermal labels an essential consumable for enterprise asset management, document classification, and commodity identification. Industry institutions predict that this structural differentiation trend will continue in the next three to five years. Traditional ordinary office paper will continue to shrink, while functional, customized, and environmentally friendly thermal label paper will become the core growth track of the office paper industry.