Market Report

Uncertainty around containers holds low grades market hostage

NL-Tilburg, 20 September 2026

What should be done about sales opportunities for low grades outside Europe, particularly in India and South-East Asia? Should we take orders? It seems a bit like suicide to enter into commitments when you don’t yet know at what price you’ll be able to arrange transport. Yes, substantial rate increases have been announced. But will they actually be implemented? And if so, will there be additional ‘surcharges’ due to the ever-rising oil prices? And will the containers actually arrive for loading once a shipment has been booked? Or are the announcements of rate increases, as is so often the case, just blanks that will ultimately fizzle out without causing any harm? No one can answer that question yet, so loading is still taking place for existing orders, but continuity in October is far from guaranteed. As 1 October draws nearer, we hope an answer will emerge.
In the meantime, it appears that many waste paper companies, out of sheer desperation, are shifting their sales increasingly towards the local market; despite the significant differences between local and export prices, the European paper and board industry – with the exception of a few regions – is receiving sufficient supplies.

Three cheers for the EU

Euwid reported this week that the European Commission has put forward a proposal to provide financial support to the 351 workers recently made redundant in the Finnish paper and timber industry. The reasons: this industry had been hit so hard by the war in Russia and Ukraine that timber imports from Russia had dried up, meaning it had to be sourced elsewhere at a higher cost. Furthermore, there is the problem of the shrinking market for graphic paper and US import duties. We had to look twice and rub our eyes – but no, it really is there.
So, the EU is going to support laid-off workers because of a shrinking market, in which some players are struggling with higher raw material prices, import costs and also higher export costs?

How is the EU handling this in the recycling sector? Textile recycling has been severely affected for years by the loss of exports to Eastern Europe due to the war there. The EU has introduced an export ban on recycled products, which has already led to catastrophic market disruptions for the plastics recycling sector within just four months. Where is the support ? And an export ban on waste paper is still to come. Perhaps it won’t be as bad as it seems?  Well, we’ll have to wait and see. The EU seems to be very good at enacting all sorts of regulations and laws without having the slightest idea of the consequences. Nobody yet knows what the solution will look like for exports to ‘certified’ paper and board mills outside the EU.
Another innovation is DIWASS. Apart from the fact that regulations concerning the export of waste materials (including recycled products) are interpreted differently in many EU countries, many companies – the 'top

of the class', so to speak – already going with Diwass ahead of the definitive implementation date of 1 January 2027. Meanwhile, as Repacar has discovered, experience shows that DIWASS cannot even cope with the very limited volume of waste currently being processed; not a single paper or board mill overseas has even looked into DIWASS, shipping companies laugh in your face when you bring it up, and the ILT (Dutch EA) has to beg UK suppliers of, amongst other things, waste paper to ask whether they would, please, be willing to enter the data into DIWASS in future – even though they are not obliged to do so – because otherwise the ILT will have to do it themselves. And, of course, there is no capacity for that. There’s hardly any capacity for anything, after all.

What does the EU Commission apparently do have capacity for? To cobble together a proposal to provide €1.1 million in support to redundant workers in a shrinking market for graphic paper. €1.1 million? Peanuts for the paper and timber industry in Finland. And the employees involved are not going to ‘buy somewhere a place in a nice little town and forget about everything’ either. It would be to the EU Commission’s credit if they were to mention straight away how much it costs to draw up such a proposal.

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.