BIR releases Jan '15 World Mirror on Recovered Paper

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has released the latest world mirror on recovered paper.

According to the World Mirror-January ’15, the Chinese imports of recovered paper collapsed by almost 10% in 2014. The overseas purchases by the country dropped by nearly 3 million tonnes when compared with the 31.5 million tonnes purchased in 2013. The fibre imports, especially those from the European region, are expected to decline further in 2015.

The European fibre exports remained strong, on the back of rising strength in US dollar against Euro. However, export prices declined sharply during the final quarter of 2014. The OCC prices tumbled from $185 per tonne levels during start of the quarter to as low as $168 per tonne levels towards the end. Mixed paper values too declined sharply from $160 per tonne levels to $135 per tonne level.

The demand for other grades of recovered paper remained normal, though prices dropped. The market conditions for higher grades remained more or less stable and balanced during the last quarter of 2014. The higher demand from Asia resulted in substantial rise in prices for SOP in Spain. The drop in collection rates due to winter has lowered the stocks of recovered paper in Turkey. On the other hand, recovered paper volumes remained stable at 800,000 in the Czech Republic during the entire year 2014.

Helsinki, Finland-headquartered UPM-Kymmene Corp. has announced its decision to permanently close down three paper machines. As per the company statement, it has decided to cease operations of Paper Machine No 2 at Kaukas mill and Paper Machine No 5 at UPM Jämsänkoski, both in Finland. In addition, the Paper Machine No 1 at the UK Shotton mill will also be idled. Meantime, the decision by Stora Enso to build a new container board machine at Varkaus is likely to bring dramatic changes to Nordic OCC market.

Sweden’s recovered paper imports dropped 19% to 329,000 tons during Jan-Sep ’14, whereas the exports rose 5% to 265,000 tons.