Quarterly Report – September/October 2019

Export markets for recovered paper remained narrow but stable during the summer. Excluding China, which is no longer a key destination for Spanish material, other countries such as Vietnam and India have maintained stability with even a slight improvement in demand. Indonesia has also increased demand although in a very irregular way, changing its import rules and conditions several times.

Overall, stocks remain high across Spain, not only at recyclers’ depots but also at paper mills. Nevertheless, imports of recovered paper continue increasing, reaching 782,260 tonnes in this year’s January-June period for a 20.27% increase over the corresponding figure for the first half of 2018. Making the same comparison, exports continued decreasing to 429,390 tonnes for a decline of 14.02% over the same period in 2018. Obviously, these trends are totally unsustainable.

Regarding domestic consumption of OCC, there has been a moderate increase. SAICA has concluded the repairs to the line damaged by a fire several months earlier, and International Paper has also solved technical problems which led the mill to stop production for several weeks. However, the resulting improvement in consumption is not enough to offset the scenario described above.

The domestic deinking market continues to worsen, with prices dropping every month. White paper demand has remained stable, with moderate price improvements at the end of the summer.

Domestic end-of-waste developments are at a quite advanced stage but will not help much while end-of-waste status is not achieved throughout all EU countries. Local end-of-waste status is valid within Europe only among those countries approving the same conditions.


Francisco J. Donoso - Francisco J. Donoso (Spain)

Francisco J. Donoso

ALBA Servicios Verdes S.L. (ESP)


Country
Spain
Issue
Quarterly Report – September/October 2019