BIR releases Paper World Mirror-July 2016

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has released Paper World Mirror for the month of July this year. The recovered paper prices reported greater stability, sustaining well above the levels reported during the same period last year.

The Brexit decision has weakened the pound significantly. The OCC export prices out of the UK recorded significant jump from $160 per tonne levels recorded during early-April to $167 per tonne towards the end of June this year. Mixed paper export prices too jumped higher from $115 per tonne during the beginning of the second quarter to $130 per tonne during the beginning of Q3 this year. Also, the domestic prices of multigrade, office packs and high grades reported gains of nearly £30 per tonne over the past few weeks.

Elsewhere in the world, recovered paper prices stabilized in France during the previous quarter. The demand for mixed and supermarket grades from domestic mills remained strong in Germany. Consequently, the prices of these grades recorded marginal increase. The collection volumes also reported healthy growth in the country. The prices of brown grades witnessed ups and downs in Spain, with prices starting to increase during the month of July. The recovered paper collection reduced substantial reduction in Italy during the second quarter of 2016. The export ban imposed by Russia against Ukraine has affected recovered paper shipments out of Poland.

The market conditions remained fairly stable in the Czech Republic. Stocks continued to remain at normal levels. The cut in operating capacity by some Turkish paper mills has led to sharp drop in demand for recovered paper exports out of the country. Finland is preparing itself to embrace a new system by which producers’ organization will be held responsible for collection of recovered paper from households and transportation to depots for processing. Sweden too reported normal stock levels during Q2 this year.

The depreciation of country’s currency has forced many mills in Indonesia to switch from importing the material from outside markets to procurement of the material from local market. The country’s mills are reported to have cancelled or postponed many import orders which were due for delivery in August and September. The recovered paper imports by Vietnam from European countries remained weak during the quarter.

Meantime, the latest monthly statistics released by the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) indicates that the total shipment of printing-writing paper declined considerably by 6% in June 2016 when matched with the same month a year before. The inventory levels of printing-writing paper declined by 2% when compared with the month before.

The June ‘16 coated free sheet (CFS) paper shipments increased marginally by 1% when compared with the previous year. Uncoated free sheets (UFS) shipment dropped sharply by 5% relative to shipments in June 2015. Coated mechanical (CM) shipments during June ‘16 declined considerably by 19% when matched with the same month in 2015. Uncoated mechanical (UM) shipments during June increased slightly.

The total kraft paper shipments during June this year have decreased by 8.5% over same month the previous year to 137.8 thousand short tons. Out of this, bleached kraft paper shipments constituted 7.7 thousand short tons whereas the balance 130.1 thousand short tons accounted for unbleached kraft paper shipments. The total month-end inventories increased to 68.6 thousand short tons in June ’16.

The US boxboard production has dropped by 2% in June 2016, when matched with the previous year. The production of unbleached kraft boxboard and recycled boxboard production decreased over the previous year. The solid bleached boxboard and liner production dropped when compared with May 2015.

The US containerboard production in June this year was 1.2% lower when compared with the same month a year before. The month-on-month average daily production has increased by 0.4% during the month. The containerboard operating rate for June held steady at 95.6% and the year-to-date operating rate of 94.5% was 1.6 percentage points lower compared to the initial six-month period in 2015.