Recovered Fiber Exports Posted Historic Decline

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The recycled material shipments out of the U.S. extended their multiple year declines. The most recent export data published by the U.S. Census Bureau states that the recovered paper shipments reported notable decline during the initial quarter of the current year.

The recovered fiber exports totalled 4.01 million short tons during the three-month period, reporting the lowest first quarter volume of exports in several years. It must be noted that the country had exported 4.74 million short tons and 4.93 million short tons in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

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The dip in exports was mainly on account of reduced intake by China. The country imported 1.20 million short tons from the U.S. during Q1 2020. This is significantly lower than the imports of 1.49 million short tons and 2.11 million short tons during the corresponding quarters in 2019 and 2018 respectively. Still, China continued to be the largest importer of U.S. recovered fiber. The other key importers were India (747,000 short tons), Mexico (309,000 short tons) and Vietnam (297,000 short tons).       

Meantime, the recycled pulp exports recorded year-on-year surge, hitting 87,000 short tons during Q1 2020. The rise in exports was mainly driven by China, which accounted for almost 84% of the total recycled pulp exports by the U.S.