Market Report
Price occ Asia slightly up
NL-Tilburg, December 15th, 2024
After slightly improved selling prices for occ (cardboard) in South East Asia last week, prices for occ (kls) there picked up a little further this last week. Most mill buyers increased by $5 per tonne and where previously there was some reluctance to confirm orders, this now ran a bit smoother. This was countered by a somewhat wait-and-see attitude in India regarding occ interest and pricing. But as local mill buyers of low grades in Europe are more likely to think of price cuts due to less demand towards the end of the year, the differences between local and export prices for occ did diverge a bit further. And so we are gradually back to normal: export prices above local, because the difficulty factor and risk indeed have a price.
For the middle and better grades, there is little news to report, prices remain level after the price cuts at the beginning of the month, intake continue as far as production continues at the paper industry and the necessary transport is available.
Otherwise, it seems ‘all is calm’ in the market and that is nicely in line with the upcoming holiday season. After all, the decreasing availability of transport, low stocks at recovered paper merchants and optimism, justified or not, for what the new year will bring, has taken some of the sales pressure off.
Plastic Recycling – good news, bad news
There was another casualty in the plastic recycling industry this week. Stiphout Recycling in Montfort (NL), which according to reports on its website processed 18,000 tonnes of post consumer plastic packaging annually, was declared bankrupt last week. Since its founding in 2016, the company had undergone considerable expansion including production expansion from 1 to 3 lines, for the latter of which a new building was erected in 2021/2022, say at the top of the plastic recycling hype. Also during that period, Lyondell Basell came on board as a ‘strategic partner’.
Good news this week, however, was that Ioniqa, the PET recycling company from Eindhoven that went bankrupt earlier, is making a restart in somewhat slimmed-down form under the leadership of former owner Hooghoudt, who said that he has several funders behind him, with 20 of the 32 staff members keeping their jobs, but the pilot plant in Geleen being closed.
Price indication
Price indication in Europe for low grades of recovered paper, sorted, baled and ex works are now between € 40 and € 70 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.