Brussels - The latest statistics on the recovered paper market have just been made available by BIR on behalf of Mr Giampiero Magnaghi, Past President of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Paper Division. The paper reports the world recovered paper market in 2008. It shows a.o. a reduction in global per capita paper and board consumption to 57.7kg in 2008 while China recorded growth to 59.1kg. The consumption of recovered paper and board in construction applications fell to 1.5 million tonnes.

Some of the key findings are:

* As in the previous year, there was an increase in Asian production but a reduction in Western World output. The production of paper and board suffered a decline - albeit minor - in 2008 but that some segments showed conspicuous progress. The output reduction was more noticeable in the Western World where several plants shut down completely.

* Import and export trends in 2007 and the early part of 2008 were very similar to those of previous years: for example, there were problems with supplying consumers in “just-in-time” terms and with co-ordinating sea transportation. As usual, overseas trade provides opportunities for brokers and generates temporary price instability owing to the fluctuation of demand coming from importer nations as compared to others. The irregularity of imports by some Asian consumers is certainly a leading cause of such fluctuations.

* It should be noted that the global crisis which erupted in the autumn of 2008 had its beginnings in the US building and housing sector. As a result, consumption of recovered paper and board in construction applications fell to 1.5 million tonnes.

* Some Eastern European countries achieved noteworthy increases in their recovered paper collection rates last year, including Poland (+9%), Hungary (+7%) and the Czech Republic (+5%).

* It is interesting to note that the economic crisis beginning in autumn 2008 led to a reduction in global per capita paper and board consumption to 57.7kg in 2008 while China recorded growth to 59.1kg. If it were not for the flow of recovered paper to Asia, collection companies in the West would probably have witnessed a collapse of their business structures because surplus volumes would have undermined their profitability.
or created pollution problems.

* For the moment, recovered paper prices are on a gently increasing trend while ocean freight rates are increasing because of rising fuel and insurance costs.

The complete paper including detailled figures on the global paper market is available under bir.org.

Quelle: Bureau of International Recycling (BIR)

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