The biggest surprise in February’s export data of paper grades from the UK is the huge slump in exports to Vietnam for OCC.
But India saw a big jump in exports of OCC and mixed paper as China reported a low total, although there are factors behind that too.
OCC – commodity code 470710
A total of 166,462 tonnes of OCC was exported from the UK in February 2018, down considerably from 209,180 tonnes in February 2017, and massively on the admittedly strong 242,943 tonnes sent abroad in January 2018.
Exports to China slumped to just 104,349 tonnes in February compared to 130,276 tonnes in January and 184,279 tonnes in February 2017. This can be partly explained by the timing of Chinese New Year, but is mostly down to the tougher import inspections and restrictions on import quotas leading to weaker demand.
After having its best month ever since we started collecting data in 2012, India surpassed it in February taking 42,309 tonnes up on January’s previous monthly record of 33,382 tonnes. For comparison sake, exports to India were just 4,574 tonnes in February 2017.
Europe as a whole was the next best destination with 8,987 tonnes, up from 6,410 in January. With 3,807 tonnes, the Netherlands was the premier destination, followed by Germany with 2,537 tonnes and France with 1,972 tonnes.
But the biggest surprise of the month was Vietnam, taking just 4,813 tonnes. This was down from the previous month’s 55,726 tonnes and was the lowest monthly total since June 2017. Since September, at least 20,000 tonnes has gone to Vietnam, so this represents a sudden and surprising reversal of that pattern.
OCC key destinations (47071000)
wdt_ID | Date | China | Vietnam | India | Indonesia | EU |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 01/12/2017 | 169,797,238 | 34,109,420 | 8,423,207 | 6,773,072 | 6,969,379 |
2 | 01/11/2017 | 141,195,914 | 24,491,024 | 13,601,647 | 8,683,621 | 6,358,291 |
3 | 01/10/2017 | 92,401,545 | 50,490,531 | 11,873,555 | 12,380,518 | 13,695,821 |
4 | 01/09/2017 | 220,831,969 | 22,871,385 | 12,628,455 | 3,961,079 | 8,304,184 |
5 | 01/08/2017 | 117,351,874 | 16,737,793 | 9,619,311 | 3,816,526 | 9,572,395 |
6 | 01/07/2017 | 145,445,005 | 7,086,910 | 5,253,257 | 2,246,658 | 7,136,389 |
7 | 01/06/2017 | 233,535,331 | 4,335,207 | 7,572,675 | 135,975 | 14,069,860 |
8 | 01/05/2017 | 181,070,651 | 14,451,740 | 14,406,892 | 818,736 | 5,455,701 |
9 | 01/04/2017 | 210,157,209 | 17,300,095 | 19,477,521 | 13,606,232 | 8,853,811 |
10 | 01/03/2017 | 232,512,036 | 10,464,640 | 10,429,028 | 8,800,361 | 3,825,716 |
Mixed paper – commodity code 470790
This grade is supposed to be banned by the Chinese for import, yet supposedly 16,615 tonnes of this grade was exported there in February, down from 19,743 tonnes in January, according to the HMRC data. How to explain that one?
Exports to India were vast in February at 37,931 tonnes, up from 26,605 tonnes in January.
As a whole, the EU imported 23,951 tonnes of mixed in February, up from 22,555 tonnes in January.
Exports to Indonesia fell to 14,731 tonnes in February from 18,178 tonnes a month earlier.
While Vietnam took slightly more than the previous month with 6,738 tonnes imported in February from 5,635 in January.
Mixed paper key destinations (47079010)
wdt_ID | Date | China | Vietnam | India | Indonesia | EU total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 01/12/2017 | 22,529,805 | 5,767,421 | 16,168,213 | 28,701,760 | 15,069,808 |
2 | 01/11/2017 | 21,525,899 | 6,776,878 | 21,513,241 | 32,511,340 | 19,241,687 |
3 | 01/10/2017 | 9,593,975 | 4,340,760 | 14,774,368 | 54,498,670 | 24,596,269 |
4 | 01/09/2017 | 37,134,676 | 3,672,400 | 5,658,543 | 17,281,140 | 27,499,171 |
5 | 01/01/2018 | 19,743,449 | 5,635,360 | 26,605,749 | 18,178,619 | 22,555,181 |
6 | 01/02/2018 | 16,615,169 | 6,738,460 | 37,931,747 | 14,731,060 | 23,951,039 |
7 | 01/03/2018 | 9,506,604 | 3,401,120 | 62,254,124 | 18,293,150 | 30,951,364 |
8 | 01/04/2018 | 12,467,300 | 6,865,830 | 43,863,425 | 16,487,850 | 32,221,347 |
9 | 01/05/2018 | 20,530,708 | 7,271,480 | 31,540,048 | 8,371,720 | 31,144,679 |
10 | 01/06/2018 | 17,873,411 | 4,860,900 | 21,463,876 | 23,196,375 | 29,530,427 |
N&P key destinations (470730)
China continued to be the main destination for news & pam in February with exports from the UK totaling 8,068 tonnes down from 8,524 tonnes in February.
Dispatches of this grade to the EU were pretty much stable at 6,653 tonnes, down just a touch from January’s 6,699 tonnes.
Indian exports fell though to 6,475 tonnes, down from 7,465 tonnes in January. This could also be a reflection of the fact that a huge amount of mixed paper was exported there in February, so some of the N&P content could have been extracted.
Indonesia improved in February to 3,724 tonnes, from 2,193 tonnes in January.
Hong Kong took just 1,397 tonnes, lower than January’s 1,958 tonnes.
N&P key destinations (470730)
wdt_ID | Date | China | Hong Kong | India | Indonesia | EU total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 01/12/2017 | 4,109,684 | 2,891,240 | 5,750,650 | 1,196,290 | 7,208,623 |
2 | 01/11/2017 | 22,701,293 | 854,064 | 6,427,402 | 2,439,980 | 6,360,676 |
3 | 01/10/2017 | 9,878,248 | 2,237,977 | 4,495,196 | 4,133,030 | 7,631,169 |
4 | 01/09/2017 | 10,441,460 | 593,225 | 1,422,481 | 2,950,660 | 7,715,215 |
5 | 01/01/2018 | 8,524,061 | 1,958,580 | 7,465,626 | 2,193,538 | 6,699,157 |
6 | 01/02/2018 | 8,068,680 | 1,397,100 | 6,475,890 | 3,724,600 | 6,653,235 |
7 | 01/03/2018 | 7,895,400 | 2,116,520 | 16,849,145 | 2,073,660 | 6,505,887 |
8 | 01/04/2018 | 7,804,741 | 2,645,300 | 14,271,690 | 8,301,805 | 6,904,991 |
9 | 01/05/2018 | 17,523,240 | 303,650 | 8,586,135 | 1,655,540 | 7,265,323 |
10 | 01/06/2018 | 13,436,260 | 3,619,580 | 5,707,480 | 2,799,660 | 2,028,904 |
OCC historic data – all destinations