While OCC, mixed and news & pams exports were all down in July, it was a tale of two regions.
Europe was strong, but Asia bought a lot less across all grades.
For OCC a total of 179,324 tonnes was exported, down on June’s 209,507 tonnes. However, June had also been the strongest month in 2022 so far. It was also higher than the total seen in April and May 2022.
Mixed saw just 96,137 tonnes leaving the UK, lower than June’s 113,235 tonnes. This was the lowest month for mixed since June 2020.
With news & pams, this dropped to 25,897 tonnes in July compared to 27,115 tonnes in the previous month. This was the lowest monthly total since September 2021.
OCC – Commodity code 470710
While exports of OCC to the EU were up considerably in July, exports to Asia fell by a lot.
The EU was the single largest buyer of UK OCC in July taking 57,091 tonnes, up from 46,790 tonnes in June. It was also a record month for the EU. But exports to the rest of the world fell to 122,234 tonnes in July from 162,717 tonnes in June.
Starting with the EU, Germany was the main purchaser with 26,541 tonnes up from 18,061 tonnes in June. This meant July overtook the previous month as the most ever imported by Germany from the UK.
This was followed by The Netherlands with 16,098 tonnes, increasing from 11,689 tonnes in the previous month. This was the most since February.
Although Spain dropped to 4,931 tonnes from 5,307 tonnes in June, it was still the second best month on record for UK exports to here.
France also dropped to 4,484 tonnes in July from 7,552 tonnes in June.
Belgium was virtually stable with 2,156 tonnes in July and 2,102 tonnes the month before.
Austria was up to 1,629 tonnes from just 420 in June. Poland was also up to 1,225 tonnes in July compared to 1,112 tonnes in the previous month.
Outside of the EU, Vietnam was the largest destination with 36,448 tonnes, albeit lower than June’s 38,356 tonnes.
Malaysia wasn’t far behind with 35,979 tonnes increasing from 20,134 tonnes the month before.
Indonesia was largely stable in July with 17,497 tonnes compared to June’s 17,281 tonnes.
Turkey was next with 10,516 tonnes lower than 11,107 tonnes in the previous month.
Thailand dropped down to 9,699 tonnes from what had been an unusually high 28,932 tonnes in June.
India was a big surprise though importing just 6,964 tonnes in July down from 46,278 tonnes in the month before.
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
Like OCC, the EU was the main buyer in July and exports there increased, while the rest of the world fell to a lower level.
Indeed the EU bought more in total than elsewhere with 49,379 tonnes compared to 46,758 tonnes for the rest of the world.
Within the EU, most went to The Netherlands taking 31,698 tonnes up from 27,465 tonnes in June.
Germany was also up in July to 11,718 tonnes from 9,472 tonnes in the month before.
Next up was France with 3,435 tonnes in July, increasing from 2,854 tonnes in the earlier month.
Belgium was almost unchanged with 1,441 tonnes compared to June’s 1,403 tonnes.
Outside of the EU, India was the main buyers but exports to there more than halved to 15,271 tonnes in July compared to 32,298 tonnes in the previous month.
July saw 9,035 tonnes go to Indonesia up from 5,008 tonnes in June.
Thailand fell to 6,560 tonnes in July from 10,544 tonnes the previous month.
Vietnam was also down to 5,898 tonnes from June’s 13,114 tonnes.
Likewise, Pakistan fell to 3,621 tonnes from 4,719 tonnes in the earlier month.
A surprise 2,950 tonnes was exported to Taiwan after taking nothing since February.
Turkey imported 1,135 tonnes in July, down a touch on June’s 1,354 tonnes.
While the Philippines imported 1,038 tonnes after bringing in nothing in the previous month.
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
Exports of this grade to the EU increased a little to 13,873 tonnes in July compared to 13,539 tonnes in June.
Again, Germany took most of this with 10,578 tonnes, up a bit from 10,061 tonnes in June.
The Netherlands imported 1,873 tonnes down from 2,206 tonnes and was the only other destination importing more than 1,000 tonnes in the EU.
Outside of the EU, India was the only country to import more than 1,000 tonnes with 9,261 tonnes dropping from June’s 11,032 tonnes.
Full historic data is available on Recycling Insights
