January 2021 was a strong month for OCC exports, but a weaker month for mixed and news & pam exports compared to December.
It was, of course, also the first month when China had officially banned imports of all paper and cardboard grades, after banning mixed in 2018.
OCC – Commodity code 470710
OCC exports from the UK, reached 209,933 tonnes in total in January 2021, compared to 195,019 tonnes in December 2020. This is according to the latest HMRC data.
It was actually the best month since March 2020 when 220,316 tonnes left the UK.
India was the driving force behind this increase taking 67,045 tonnes in January 2021, compared to 43,839 tonnes in December. This was the best month for India in exactly a year, when 91,396 tonnes went there at the start of 2020.
Turkey followed with 33,587 tonnes, just a little lower than December’s 34,668 tonnes.
Malaysia was the next highest destination with 29,563 tonnes, down slightly from 30,285 tonnes in December.
Vietnam saw a fall of approximately 10,000 tonnes to 23,410 tonnes from December’s 33,869 tonnes.
It was a strong month from Thailand with 19,048 tonnes headed there, up from 12,670 tonnes the month before. This also made it the best ever month for Thailand, with the previous highest total occurring in October.
Indonesian imports from the UK virtually halved to 15,311 tonnes in January 2021 compared to 29,463 tonnes in the last month of last year.
The EU as a whole was next with 11,436 tonnes, up from 2,469 tonnes in December. Of this, 7,098 tonnes went via the Netherlands, while a surprising 2,030 tonnes went to Spain. France was the only other EU nation above 1,000 tonnes with 1,228 tonnes.
Taiwan increased its imports of UK material to 7,210 tonnes, from 4,050 tonnes a month earlier.
Despite being banned, 1,586 tonnes went to China, up from 452 tonnes in December.
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
Exports of this grade dropped to 126,498 tonnes in January 2021 from 137,899 tonnes in December.
Like OCC, India was the main buyer with 67,355 tonnes, more than half of the total. This was an increase from December’s 44,612 tonnes.
Thailand was next best with 22,999 tonnes down from December’s 27,672 tonnes.
Total exports to the EU were 12,271 tonnes down massively from 40,120 tonnes in the month before. Of this, 8,672 tonnes went to the Netherlands, down from 16,494 tonnes in December. Germany was the only other significant EU destination with 2,283 tonnes.
Exports to Indonesia also dropped to 6,996 tonnes in January compared to 7,984 tonnes a month earlier.
Malaysia took 3,451 tonnes, more than double December’s 1,600 tonnes.
Vietnam wasn’t far behind with 3,262 tonnes but this was a big drop from 9,875 tonnes the month before.
There was a small increase in exports to Pakistan to 1,428 in January from 1,203 tonnes a month earlier.
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 |
News & Pams – Commodity code 470730
Just 12,909 tonnes were exported in January, down from 14,169 tonnes in December.
Of this, 5,653 tonnes went to India, compared to 5,925 tonnes the month before.
Exports of this grade to Thailand also fell to 2,365 tonnes from December’s 3,117 tonnes.
While Turkey took a bit more with 1,702 tonnes down from 1,122 tonnes in December.
OCC historic data – all destinations
Mixed paper historic data – all destinations
N&P historic data – all destinations