U.S. Recovered Paper Exports Dipped 5%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.S. recovered fiber exports totaled 4.7 million short tons during the first quarter of 2019, says the latest trade data published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

China continued to remain as a key export market for U.S. recovered fiber. The country remained as the primary importer during the quarter, receiving nearly 1.5 million short tons of the material. This accounted for almost 31% of the total scrap paper exports by the U.S. during the quarterly period. The Chinese imports of recovered paper from the U.S. has seen drastic decline by more than 2 million short tons over the past two years.

The exports previously routed to China ended up in new alternative markets such as Indonesia and Taiwan. For instance, the import volumes of U.S. recovered fiber by Indonesia almost doubled in Q1 2019, when compared with the corresponding quarter last year. Taiwan’s Q1 imports from the U.S. more than tripled from the previous year. Thailand too doubled its import volumes from the U.S. Modest increase in imports were reported by South Korea, Mexico and Vietnam.

Meantime, recovered fiber shipments from the U.S. to India registered decline during the first quarter of the current year.

The exports totaled 1.62 million short tons in the month of March 2019. The top three importers were China (502,000 short tons), India (319,000 short tons) and Mexico (144,000 short tons). These three countries accounted for almost 60% of all shipments by the U.S. during the month.