Market Report

Expectation February: mostly stable

NL-Tilburg, 1 February 2026
 

On the first day of February, there is little shocking market news to report. The only shocking thing is actually the rather drastic fall in the Dollar over the past week from 1.17 to 1.20, which has caused export prices converted into euros to fall by around €3 to €6 per tonne, depending on the grade. On Friday afternoon, there was a recovery, halving the disadvantage. Attempts to rectify this in sales prices have not been successful this week. Sales prices in Dollars remain unchanged for the time being, as prices of offers from the US are also said to be stable. And this despite the fact that weather conditions in the US for collecting recovered paper are currently far from optimal, which could also be the reason that prices in the US did not go down. We would almost wish for these weather conditions to continue for another month or so, because one man's loss is another man's gain. However, the impact of this on people's lives is greater than that on the recovered paper trade, so we must subordinate it to what is good for people. Normally, we can assume that overseas buyers are currently neither interested nor willing to pay higher (Dollar) prices, so the export price is currently € 1,50 to €3 per tonne lower based on all inputs.
Local mill buyers have not yet given any indication, although initial reports suggest that prices are not expected to change significantly. There is no reason for this to happen for the low grades either, as supply and demand are reasonably balanced. In the lower de-inking grades, this varies from region to region. With higher transport rates but also market interventions, this is shifting slightly. By market interventions, we mean, for example, that Norske Skog in Bruck (A) has switched to 100% virgin fibre (wood) and no longer uses de-inked paper for the production of magazine paper. Furthermore, Papresa in Spain, which was taken over by QCR in 2020, is the subject of sales negotiations with a packaging paper group in Spain that does not see any future in the production of graphic paper. It is therefore possible that the second machine will also be converted to test liner and fluting or dismantled, but this does mean that no more newspaper or other graphic paper will be produced in Spain. The recovered (waste) paper collected regionally will undoubtedly find its way unsorted to the packaging manufacturers. However, there is a significant reduction in the margin for the waste paper processors because there is no longer any added value in sorting for de-inking. This business model of sorting household paper has been under pressure for years due to the steadily declining share of newspapers and magazines and the steadily increasing share of

cardboard in collections. The fact that the Filpap index in Belgium no longer indicates a collection of 68/32 (newspapers + magazines – cardboard) and now only refers to 56/44 and 50/50 indicates the shift from negative to ultimately positive sorting. Expensive sorting, in other words. To compensate, graphic paper producers have gradually had to purchase better, and therefore more expensive, grades of waste paper in order to achieve the required whiteness. In doing so, they have entered the recovered paper market of tissue producers, who, due to the resulting structurally higher waste paper prices, have been forced to use pulp (cellulose) whenever possible. There is no reason to assume that this trend is reversible. With declining volumes of graphic recovered paper, the sorting of household paper will eventually disappear altogether. 

Price indication

Price indication in Europe for low grades of recovered paper, sorted, baled and ex works are now between € 60 and € 80 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.