Market Report
Paper on track for further recovery – problems plastics market deepening
NL-Tilburg, 25 October 2026
As mentioned last week, the market appears calm. But appearances can be deceiving. For whilst there are signs that prices for occ (cardboard) grades are softening in the US, prices for European occ are rising in South-East Asia. As was also the case last week, India is still holding back for the time being. It is unlikely that this will continue if no further orders are taken there.
The same essentially applies to the local European market. Mill buyers facing production downtime – for whatever reason – are in no hurry whatsoever to accept price rises. But if the price gap with exports continues to widen, price rises will be unavoidable in Europe too. These are also necessary because oil prices seem to be heading in only one direction – upwards – and costs for recovered paper companies will therefore continue to rise proportionally. Diesel surcharges are therefore set to rise. But these are not exactly pleasant conversations to have with suppliers.
As for the lower de-inking grades, we’ll have to wait and see what the impact of the fire at Stora Enso in Langerbrugge (B) is. After feeling optimistic last weekend that production – and therefore purchases and intake – would be minimally affected, there have been some less favourable developments; in addition to the problems with the burnt recovered paper stock, there appears to be a setback with getting the machine up and running again. The result: all scheduled deliveries have been cancelled. We’ll have to see how things develop over the coming days, but deliveries have been suspended for at least a week. Complain ? Our problems are very minor compared with the challenges Stora Enso is currently facing. Hopefully, the consequences of the fire will be resolved quickly, which is, of course, of great importance to all stakeholders.
Looking ahead to November, it should become clear next week where prices for the high grades are heading in November. It is still too early to make any definitive statements on this, other than to say that demand is strong and sales won’t be a problem provided the quality is good.
Shall we briefly mention the situation regarding plastics? Or perhaps not, as that’s going to be a disaster. But that was to be expected. Optimists are talking about notifications that have been finalised, to which import licences from importing countries will be added by the end of the first
quarter of 2027. Could that happen? Let’s just hope so. If not, we could end up with scenarios like the ones we saw in 1992, where forklift trucks and staff were hired as well as warehouses that were filled to the brim with plastic (and paper too) at negative prices by ‘new players’ who were said to be speculating on storage. That didn’t happen because, after collecting their payments, they vanished into thin air, leaving behind unpaid bills for all sorts of things. And none of that would have been necessary back then either, because if they’d held out for just one more good year, it could all have been sold on the market at positive prices, yielding substantial profits. But then, of course, the negative prices had thrown the floodgates wide open to Asia and South America. Now we’re facing an EU export ban. A small difference . . . .
Perhaps then mention how the English recycled plastic market is doing or better next time and not take all pain in one go ?
Price indication
Price indication in Europe for low grades of recovered paper, sorted, baled and ex works are now between € 80 and € 100 per tonne. These prices are depending on quality, available volume, region and loaded weight.
Look here at the Price chart >>
The price chart gives an indication of the price of mixed paper, separately collected, in the Netherlands free delivered mill over the last 10 years.
Scrolling over the top of the columns gives the exact price indication in Euro's per ton.