Recycling paper export report: January 2024

March 20, 2024

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Container — A container ready to be loaded for shipping

These are the latest HMRC export figures for January 2024 for key paper and cardboard grades. Only destinations of more than 1,000 tonnes per month are included.

OCC – Commodity code 470710

Exports of OCC to the majority of deep sea destinations in January are significantly up, compared with the last half of 2023.

A total of 195,575 tonnes were exported in January, which was a good increase compared to 169,423 tonnes in December. This indicates a rise back towards the monthly totals seen during the first months of 2023.

Exports to Malaysia saw a significant increase from 34,718 in December to 57,919 for January 2024. Exports to Turkey remain higher than December 2023, with Vietnam reporting almost double the volume leaving UK shores in January.

Destinations across Europe also showed strong results with Netherlands reporting figures showing a two-fold increase compared with December 2023.

	January 2024	December 2023	January 2023
Malaysia	57,919	34,718	72,646
Turkey	56,080	40,349	19,438
India	29,919	33,444	54,910
Vietnam	26,425	13,993	41,294
Indonesia	13,731	13,510	35,096
Thailand	9,250	17,525	28,097
Netherlands	7,400	3,854	9,540
Germany	5,232	4,623	4,557
France	2,785	2,010	1,317
Belgium	2,344	1,456	899
Taiwan	1,204	1,617	202
Poland	1,066	621	266

Mixed paper – Commodity code 470790

Exports of mixed paper saw an increase with a total of 137,504 tonnes departing from UK shores, up from 106,255 tonnes in December. India remained the dominant destination for mixed paper exports in January 2024, with a further increase of tonnage, bringing the total exported to 57,386 tonnes.

Exports to Vietnam and Thailand continued to see strong figures too, and were again up on levels compared with December 2023.

Across Europe, mixed paper exports saw increases broadly across the region. Turkey showed volumes have bounced back after a flat month in December. Netherlands remained strong and received the most mixed paper material compared to the rest of Europe.

	January 2024	December 2023	January 2023
India	57,386	46,934	29,450
Thailand	20,729	15,295	8,752
Vietnam	19,138	14,848	28,959
Netherlands	9,609	6,098	8,918
Malaysia	9,385	6,759	1,990
Indonesia	6,072	3,786	4,552
Germany	5,026	3,720	7,031
France	4,190	2,189	1,105
Turkey	1,888	89	2,461
Spain	1,616	817	189
Belgium	1,440	1,448	1,028

News & Pams – Commodity code 470730

Exports of this grade have continued to see steady increases in January compared to December, and illustrate a higher volume compared with most months in 2023, with the exception of February.

A total of 16,059 tonnes left the UK in January, which is almost double the volume of exported material compared with 8,296 leaving the UK in December.