The plastic PRN/PERN market jumped above £500 this week, which caused everyone to panic and it then crashed.
To put this into context, this meant that the PRN/PERN price for plastics had jumped up by over £150 in a week, the slumped by around £250 in the same week. It might yet fall further – see below for more information.
Paper markets remained largely static, while there was some small increases for small metals.
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Apart from the crazy plastic PRN/PERN, there wasn’t much change elsewhere either.
The pound remained at $1.26 against the dollar and €1.12 with the euro.
Recycled plastics
Clearly, the key news this week was the rapid rise and fall of the plastic PRN/PERN.
After speculation and pressure pushed it up above the £500 mark from around £350 last week, it promptly dropped to £250 at the time of writing, but could even go lower.
The market view is that the PRN/PERN is likely to stay volatile in the coming months, and it will be interesting to see how it responds to the Q2 data when published next month.
This makes pricing of physical material extremely hard. Effectively, physical prices went sky high this week and then dropped at the same rate as the PRN/PERN price. But it also meant many were reluctant to trade, for fear that the price they agreed five minutes ago was now out of date. There are many who have had their fingers burned already, and many with their burned fingers crossed that the market will stabilise next week.
Forecast prices
| 1-week | 4-week | |
| PET | 306-312 | 327-333 |
| HDPE | 550-556 | 575-581 |
| LDPE | 413-417 | 436-442 |
Recycled paper
The paper market remained largely stable this week, with mixed paper losing a bit of interest and the price falling as a result.
Both arisings and demand were poor, with a sluggish global economy providing less material to collect and recycle and less demand for finished goods.
However, news that the Indonesian Government has agreed to use ISRI specifications for paper imports might help to loosen some demand. Previously, it looked like it would introduce more draconian import restrictions.
Although July is expected to remain quiet, there are some indications that demand may pick up from August from South East Asian destinations, providing a boost at what is generally quite a quiet time of the year.
Forecast prices
| 1-week | 4-week | |
| OCC | 51-55 | 50-54 |
| ONP | 90-94 | 89-93 |
| Mixed | 21-25 | 22-26 |
Recycled metals
Copper prices increased by £50 per tonne this week, while brass was up by £25 per tonne.
All other metals, including can grades, remained the same.
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
