There wasn’t a huge amount of activity in the paper and plastics market this week and this was reflected in pretty static prices.
Metals was a little different though as global markets led to higher prices for scrap.
Many traders were taking advantage of the bank holiday and school half-term to have some holiday time, thinking perhaps rightly, that volumes of material available to buy and sell won’t have changed much by the time they get back.
The pound reached $1.25 against the dollar from $1.23 a week ago, making exports more expensive. It was also stronger against the euro at €1.16.
Recycled plastics
Despite a rise in the PRN/PERN value by around £15 per tonne, this wasn’t reflected in higher prices for material.
PET and LDPE are not seeing demand from anywhere at the moment, and prices were static despite this rise.
HDPE continues to benefit from the additional price paid by dairies, but this tends to be a quieter time of year for this material anyway.
Nobody is expecting markets to change while arisings and demand remains low.
Recycled paper
What trade was done seemed to be last week, which was quiet even for the start of the month.
Spot activity was very low this week, with no destination popping up to stimulate the market.
Indeed, with so little happening, prices were generally the same as they were last week, despite a small uplift in the PRN/PERN price.
Many are hoping that summer will see economic improvement that will help to get more material to collect and more to move, but there is also a lot of pessimism around about the market at the moment.
Recycled metals
This was one sector where there were price changes due to an increase in prices on the LME.
Copper and brass were both up by £150 per tonne. After weeks of falling prices, ferrous grades recovered adding £15 per tonne to their value.
Recycling prices
For recycled paper prices, click here
For recycled plastic prices, click here
For recycled metal prices, click here
For recycled glass prices, click here
For PRN/PERN prices, click here
