World wide news of the industry for recycling of paper and board
Asia back in the European market for OCC (kls)
Asian buyers have pushed the price of occ (kls) above the local level with some big steps over the last few days. While local mills are still looking for the right direction, export prices have come again far above the local level, thanks to higher dollar prices and lower shipping rates. This could be seen as returning back to a normal market, although it can be expected that the European paper industry will react with price increases. Demand is simply too big to let everything flow into exports. This is in contrast with the American market where export is very active in claiming available volumes but with the local mills not having too many problems to find the necessary raw material. With increasing local prices in China and also higher export prices in Japan, it seems that the occ market has not reached the top yet. Expected is that generation of recovered paper will go up now but with also ever longer delivery times in all sectors of the paper industry, this month availability will continue to remain tight. This also goes for all other grades. Prices of news are going up in the U.S. as the gap with mixed paper is too small. In Europe all low grades are short with a focus on OI magazines, also in Asia. Several buyers have tried to reduce prices for better grades, but it worked out to be too early for that. For some high grades like hard white (envelopes) and swl (white heavy letter) prices even went up further. So question is if we will continue on the way up or that increased generation will lead to a calming of the markets with thereafter the unavoidable strong price corrections. If we are about to enter into a serious recovery of the economy, we have not seen the end yet. However if a new slow down will occurr as feared by many, our good market will soon be over. In the meantime the paper industry is still searching for options to improve rentability. This last Friday the trade in shares of StoraEnso, Holmen and Norske Skog was suspended for rumours of a possible merger. Parties are denying but such a merger would not be illogical, of course. Especially Norske Skog is in stormy weather and needs a way out.
