The domestic demand for waste paper and most kinds of waste paper still rose strongly in July“ Demand is very good, “said Bryce stacap, recycling operations manager at the Scott County waste board in Iowa.” the value of cardboard and mixed paper is rising. This month, the price of mixed paper seems to be in the range of $90 per ton. Not long ago, our selling price was about $2 per ton. “
Peter Keller, vice president of public service recycling and sustainable development headquartered in Phoenix, added that he did not see any challenges related to waste paper transportation, “except that some routes in some export markets will encounter congestion”.
Packaging demand is helping to support the demand for waste paper. Kyle white, chief stock research analyst of paper, packaging and environmental services at Deutsche Bank Securities, headquartered in New York, said that strong packaging demand this summer has driven strong demand for old corrugated boxes (OCC) in the United States, and carton paper mills are doing their best to produce.
White said that in 2020, the domestic box board paper mills in the United States consumed 22.8 million tons of OCC, a year-on-year increase of 4% over 2019. He said that as of May this year, the consumption of OCC in the United States had increased by 5.8% year-on-year. OCC’s export demand is also strong. From January to April, OCC exports in the United States increased by 18.4% year-on-year.
This summer, strong demand kept the price of waste paper high. White said that the average price of OCC in July was $129 per ton, and it has been rising for at least eight consecutive months“ We have never seen such a high pricing level since China began to implement the waste paper import ban in September 2017, “he said.
Although the supply of OCC is tight compared with the demand, white said that this is not a big problem“ Considering that the export volume may exceed 10 million tons this year, I think there is still enough OCC supply to meet domestic demand. In other words, I have seen reports that domestic carton paper manufacturers are looking for fiber substitutes. Mixed paper is a possible solution for corrugated paper in some cases. “
Green Bay Packaging (GBP) opened a new paper mill in Wisconsin earlier this year. The company said flexibility was taken into account in the construction of the plant. Matt shimanski, vice president of GBP plant operation, said that it can consume 60% mixed paper and 40% OCC for proportioning, or 100% OCC.
Other proposed plant projects will be able to use mixed paper. According to a report released in mid June by the Northeast recycling Commission (NERC) of bratborough, Vermont, almost all items on its list will consume OCC and mixed paper. NERC reported that NORPAC is converting its existing production capacity to the production of hanging paper, corrugated paper and special kraft paper. It will consume 400000 tons of OCC and mixed paper every year, which is expected to be completed in 2022.
In the same year, NERC said that Shenfeng development enterprise was opening a plant in Tampa, Florida, which would use OCC and mixed paper to produce 400000 tons of recycled pulp every year. In addition, Atlantic packaging products will open a plant in Whitby, Ontario in 2022. The plant will consume OCC and mixed paper and produce 400000 tons of corrugated paper and face paper every year.
It is expected that the carton board project will not slow down. When talking about the carton board market, white said: “the market demand for carton board has been very strong. Carton shipments in such a mature industry have increased unprecedentedly. According to the data of the fiber carton Association, carton shipments increased by 8.2% year-on-year in the second quarter, following a year-on-year increase of 5.5% in the first quarter of 2021. In other words, with more challenging year-on-year comparable data from the third quarter, I will assume this growth peak. We have seen some slowdown because it increased by 11.4% in April and 8.8% in May, but increased by 4.6% in June. “
He added that he estimated that the production capacity of carton board will increase by more than 4% in 2021, of which only more than half are recycled carton board and the rest are raw pulp kraft cardboard. “However, a large part of this growth starts with the increase of capacity in 2020,” white concluded. In 2023 and 2024, we estimate that production capacity will increase by about 2% per year, of which about 70% will be recycled cardboard. “
Post time: Jul-27-2021