By Nathan Gill

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) — Celulosa Arauco y Constitucion SA, the world’s second-biggest pulp maker, said a recovery in Asian markets is boosting the price of pulp.

Demand for pulp at the forestry unit of Empresas Copec SA, Chile’s largest publicly traded company by market value, touched bottom last quarter and probably will remain at “good” levels in the second half, Gianfranco Truffello, chief financial officer of Copec’s Arauco unit, said today on a conference call.

The average price of radiata pine to China should increase to $567 in the third quarter from $503 in the second quarter, the company said today in an e-mailed statement. The company’s sales of wood pulp increased 11 percent to $402 million in the second quarter from $362 million in the previous quarter on higher volumes, Truffello said.

“We’ve seen important increases in price,” he said. “This recovery is pushed by the Asian markets, particularly China. We’ve also had decreases in costs of production.”

Brazil’s Fibria, formed by the merger between Votorantim Celulose & Papel SA and Aracruz Celulose SA, is the world’s biggest maker of the raw material used to make paper.