Industry observers said that since 2020, the U.S. recycled fiber industry has experienced market changes at home and abroad, as well as different degrees of investment warming, and entered the post epidemic era.
Megan workman, editor of fastmarkets and price reporter of recycled fiber, pointed out in an online speech at the 2021 ISRI held at the end of April that due to the oversupply of recycled paper in the United States, the industry is highly dependent on exports. China was the biggest buyer before the ban was issued. With the promulgation and implementation of China’s “waste ban order”, the export of American used corrugated boxes (OCC) to China is extremely shrinking. American exporters are moving to new markets.
According to workman, at present, American recycled fiber suppliers have successfully transferred the target market, and India has become the largest buyer and price leader. According to the data, in January 2021, India imported 355000 tons of recycled fiber from the United States, which is close to China’s import volume in the same period of last year. Other major Asian markets include Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Because of the blockade policy of COVID-19, which has affected the recycling of waste paper, Europe has also become an important buyer of recycled fiber in the United States, reversing the situation that China has always been a major importer, which directly led to the export price of recycled fiber from the east coast of the United States, which is higher than that of the west coast. Coupled with the shortage of containers and shipping delays on the west coast, the ports on the east coast have more advantages in export.
Workman predicts that worldwide, the trend of paper demand growth will continue until 2025. In 2020, affected by the epidemic, the demand of almost all paper categories will decline, but in 2021, it has begun to rebound. In April this year, the average price of waste corrugated boxes (OCC) in the United States was US $88 / T, an increase of 24% compared with us $71 / T in March, and an increase of 77% compared with the same period last year. According to workman, the reason why the price of waste corrugated box (OCC) has risen is that OCC is the main component of brown recycled pulp and is not affected by China’s “waste paper ban”.
In March 2020, the export price of brown pulp in the United States was US $280-350 per ton, and now it is close to US $520. Fastmarkets reports that China’s demand for this product was almost zero in 2017 and will reach 4.5 million tons by 2025.
Referring to the domestic situation in the United States, workman pointed out that the consumption of waste paper in 2020 will exceed 20 million tons, reaching the highest level in ten years. Factories have been increasing production capacity, investing in equipment and buying more waste paper. The demand and price of waste paper have changed.
In 2018 and 2019, the price of waste paper in the United States is usually $0, sometimes even negative. However, the consumption of miscellaneous waste paper in 2020 is the second highest year in a decade. Due to the increase of demand, the price rises sharply. The rise in the price of raw pulp has also shifted demand to the secondary market.
During the COVID-19, the paper industry is also suffering from supply chain problems similar to those of other industries, such as exporters’ shortages of equipment, ships and containers, and port downtime.
Post time: May-18-2021