Recycling Market Commentary and Prices: 15 June 2018

Like last week, this week wasn’t a dramatic week in terms of price changes. Although some grades did see adjustments.

But things are bubbling up underneath that could start to see the value of materials changes over the coming weeks.

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Exporting seems increasingly hard at the moment with markets being closed off by regulation, ports being full, or end destinations unable to accept any more material.

There are some destinations still accepting material, with Europe now appearing to be in a buying mode for some materials ahead of the effective summer shutdown in late July and all of August.

Shipping lines are reported to be getting nervous though about many destinations as they don’t want to be lumbered with containers on the water and suddenly find the destination has shut its doors.

The pound has ended the week in a better position for exporters though at $1.32 compared to $1.33 last week. Two months ago, the pound was trading at $1.42, so currently the market is advantageous in terms of FX for those buying and selling in dollars.

Against the euro, the pound appeared to be weakening for most of the week reaching as low as €1.134 yesterday. But it recovered today to €1.146 at the time of writing. If that level continues into next week, it will make sending material into Europe a bit more expensive.

Recycled plastic

There wasn’t any change in the price of plastics this week, and the indications are that this may stay like this for a little while yet.

Virgin polymer prices look largely stable at the moment, so any price increases or falls are likely to come as a result of changing demand.

At the moment, demand from Europe is good for packaging grades, but this may start to ease off as we get closer to summer holidays.

Otherwise, it looks like the market for plastics could be stable over the next couple of weeks.

Recycled paper

The price of OCC remained largely the same this week, although there is an expectation that prices will start to ease over the coming weeks.

Chinese buyers were still prepared to spend around £150 per tonne, while the bottom of the spread to other Asian destinations was still at £70 per tonne.

But the confusion over the CCIC 100% inspections situation remains the main point of conversation. The advice at the moment is to keep business as usual until the infrastructure is in place for these full inspections to China, but people are nervous about this.

Rumours have been swirling that exports are allowed until 18 June or 22 June under the previous regime, but that simply isn’t true. According to the regulations, 100% inspections were enforced from 1 June, but the reality is that this isn’t possible. There appears to be some leeway being given to allow Chinese mills to keep receiving the material they need, but how long this will last for isn’t clear.

It could be 100% inspections from any point now, or material could suddenly start getting rejected by Chinese customs for not having had these pre-inspections.

Indeed, it is believed that along with the 100% inspections of US containers at Chinese ports, at least half of UK and European containers are being opened and inspected there too. This is leading to severe delays in material getting to the mills, with it understood that Chinese customs are clearing anywhere between just 10 and 100 paper-filled containers a day at certain ports.

As a result of this, there appears to have been a slight pause in the market this week, from both domestic and export buyers until it becomes clearer what this means for the market.

This isn’t the case with news & pam and mixed paper, which have been experiencing increased demand. The reason appears to be stocking up on these grades while they are cheap before summer holidays kicks in. There could be a little more momentum in these grades in the coming weeks if this continues.

Recycled metals

Brass grades saw a £100 per tonne increase this week, but the metals market is generally (and perhaps surprisingly) stable at the moment.

Prices

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UK plastic bottles

UK HDPE, Wheelie Bins, HIPS, EPS, PP

UK LDPE film

UK pots, tubs, trays

UK OCC, ONP, Mixed paper

UK soft mixed, OIN, SOW

UK Multi, WHL, BW2

UK copper

UK brass

UK aluminium alloys

UK aluminum

UK stainless steel, zinc, lead

UK ferrous

UK engines, cans, plugs

UK glass

PRN paper, plastic, glass

PRNs wood, steel, alu, recovery

UK gate fees, RDF, landfill

UK Gate Fees - EFW, AD, MRF

China plastics

China paper

China metals

US plastics

US paper

US metals