India stepped up its purchases of recovered paper grades in March, according to the latest official HMRC export data.
While China also improved in how much OCC it bought too.
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OCC – commodity code 470710Â
China continued to be the dominant purchaser of OCC in March with its exports growing after a poor month in February.
Globally a total of 237,290 tonnes was exported from the UK in March, up from 175,440 tonnes in February. However, it is down on March 2017 when 268,914 tonnes was sent abroad from the UK.
In March this year, China took more than half of the UK’s exported OCC with 139,687 tonnes – an improvement on February’s 104,349 tonnes. However, this was significantly weaker than March 2017’s 232,512 tonnes.
India stepped up though, buying a record 54,003 tonnes, beating the previous record of 50,384 tonnes in January. In February India had purchased a still high 42,309 tonnes. In March 2017, exports to India were just 10,429 tonnes.
Exports to Vietnam in March were 22,606 tonnes, up from the surprisingly poor 4,813 tonnes in February. It was still better than March 2017’s 10,464 tonnes and shows Vietnam appears on the whole to be an increasingly strong destination for OCC.
Europe’s 6,502 tonnes was down on February’s 8,987 tonnes, but still better than March 2017’s 3,825 tonnes. With 2,946 tonnes, the Netherlands was the key European buyer followed by France (1,688 tonnes) and Germany (1,511 tonnes).
UK exports to Indonesia fell to 4,306 tonnes from 6,217 tonnes in February.
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
As mentioned in both January and February, this commodity code is supposedly banned by the Chinese Government, and yet the official HMRC data shows decent tonnages going there.
9,506 tonnes was exported there in March, albeit down from 16,615 tonnes in February and 19,743 tonnes in January.
But it was India that was by far the key destination for mixed paper, buying 62,254 tonnes in March up from 37,931 tonnes in February and 26,605 tonnes in January. Clearly, India has been taking advantage of the low prices of mixed paper.
As a whole, the EU was the next best destination with 30,951 tonnes, up from 23,951 tonnes in February. Among European countries, the Netherlands was the best destination in March with 15,342 tonnes, followed by Germany with 9,306 tonnes. The other significant destination was France with 3,154 tonnes.
In March, Indonesia purchased 18,293 tonnes of mixed paper compared to 14,731 tonnes in February.
While Vietnam bought just 3,401 tonnes of this grade, down from 6,738 tonnes in February.
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)
India was the dominant buyer of news & pam in March taking a rather large 16,849 tonnes more than 10,000 tonnes greater than February’s 6,475 tonnes. This means India had a record month for OCC and was the dominant buyer of mixed and N&P in March.
China’s 7,895 tonnes was down on February’s 8,068 tonnes.
Europe was the next best destination for this grade with 6,505 tonnes. Germany completely dominated with 3,441 tonnes, followed by the Netherlands with just 995 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
Mixed paper historic data – all destinations
N&P historic data – all destinations
