BIR releases Paper World Mirror April 2015

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster):  The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has released the Paper World Mirror for the month of April 2015.

According to the report, OCC prices declined sharply from $168-plus per tonne to $160-plus per tonne during the first quarter of the year. Mixed paper witnessed steep decline from $135-plus per tonne to $120-plus per tonne. The Asian demand for European fibre saw gradual recovery towards the end of the quarter. However, prices have remained more or less flat.

Stricter import restrictions by Chinese environmental authorities and recent proposal by Indonesian government authorities to intensify pre-shipment inspections have led to postponement of buying decisions in these countries.

Closures in European region continued to affect the newsprint sector badly. The loss in this sector was aggravated with the unexpected closure of Aylesford Newsprint in the UK. The Asian demand for European origin lower paper grades improved in France during the quarter. The rise in local demand for OCC led to sharp recovery in prices in Spain. The domestic demand for all recovered fibre grades remained strong in Finland.

The consumption of recovered fibre increased sharply to 16.62 million tonnes during the entire year 2014. Meantime, increased domestic demand resulted in 16% fall in exports to 2.34 million tonnes. Sweden’s recovered paper consumption dropped 9% in 2014 to 1.248 million tonnes. The recovered paper imports too fell 9%. On the other hand, exports gained 3% during the year.

Recovered paper shipments by the Czech Republic surged higher by 16% over the previous year to 730,000 tonnes. The collection by domestic mills too increased significantly by 14%. Collection volumes registered the biggest annual growth in 2014.

The commissioning of new PM 5 is likely to increase the capacity at Modern Karton’s light-weight packaging paper plant in Corlu, Turkey. The new recycled product capacity is expected to go live during the second quarter of 2015. Vietnamese mills have also announced major capacity expansion plans.