There wasn’t much movement in recycling prices at all this week, although some metals did drop and OCC increased a little.
Much of the market is either on holiday or taking it slowly waiting to see what is going to happen.
Exporters in particular are very uncertain about what they can and can’t send abroad, with Asia very tight or closed at present.
Market fundamentals are otherwise good for exporters with the pound holding on at $1.27 this week, making material extremely attractive to overseas buyers if they are able to pay it. Shipping costs are also good if you can find a line willing to take material.
The rest of the summer is expected to be a time of crossing fingers and waiting to see what happens.
Recycled plastics
The news that Taiwan also looks set to close its doors to everything apart from post-manufacturing plastics means that Asia is effectively closed at the moment.
Although Vietnam remains shut to imports, there is hope and expectation that it will reopen albeit under a stricter import regime. Much will also depend on how much risk shipping lines will be prepared to take to allow material to be sent there however.
With Malaysia, the view is increasingly strong that it will not reopen once the initial three month ban is over.
It therefore wouldn’t be a surprise if certain plastic grades become extremely tough to shift in the autumn and beyond until the infrastructure to process material changes in order to cope.
Recycled paper
Only OCC changed in value this week, increasing by £2 per tonne. However, the spread remained very wide, and this increase was driven by the Chinese exporters who continued to pay above £160 per tonne and around £170 even if they wanted the material.
The bottom end of the market was still £80 and above for the lowest quality material.
There is some uncertainty though about shipments to China and whether the new CCIC inspection regime will be sufficient for Chinese Customs officials at the end destinations. Expect a worrying few weeks, and possibly a softening in demand until things become clearer. On the other hand, the mills appear to want high quality material.
Otherwise, other grades were stable.
Recycled metals
Copper dropped by £200 per tonne as continued trade war fears affected the market. Otherwise, everything else was unchanged.
Recycling Prices
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