As we head towards June, there isn’t a clear and apparent route for the recycling marketplace with volatility dominant.
In the plastics market, the closure of Turkey for most grades has created a great deal of uncertainty with some grades looking set to fall as a result.
Some paper grades increased in value this week, but the question is whether this was a respite in a falling market, or a sign of prices bouncing back up.
While copper recovered again, the past seven days saw aluminium grades edge down.
In FX markets, the pound was slightly weaker against the dollar at $1.41 from $1.42 a week ago. After dipping mid-week below €1.16, the pound recovered back up against this level again by the time of writing.
Recycled plastic
This week saw the PRN/PERN value rise by £20, but this was on the back of uncertainty that infected the market.
The news about Turkey closing to certain grades put downward pressure on markets despite the rise in the PRN/PERN.
Bottle grades saw a small increase, but other grades such as LDPE film and PP came off a bit.
With these latter two grades, there was a wide spread in what was being paid as the market adjusts – high prices could be achieved still by those still prepare to pay, but others were dropping quoted prices by huge amounts.
Forecast prices
| 1-week | 4-week | |
| PET | 244-250 | 242-248 |
| HDPE | 470-476 | 465-471 |
| LDPE 98/2 | 335-341 | 336-342 |
Recycled paper
Key paper grades were up in value this week reversing the recent trend of falling prices.
The question now is had prices hit the bottom and are now bouncing back up, or was this a one-off week as people bought for June?
On the one hand, there was good demand coming from Europe for material, while India appeared to be back in the market as the Covid situation there eased a bit and people got more used to working within it.
Clearly, Covid is affecting global supply chains and that continues to warp the market, sometimes from day-to-day.
OCC, mixed and news & pam all rose in price this week as a result.
However, some think there was a lot of trading occurring for June and before people take the half-term holiday off next week, especially now weather seems to be improving and people can do more. Those taking this viewpoint are of the belief this week was a blip and markets are likely to come down.
What we do know is that the market is volatile.
Forecast prices
| 1-week | 4-week | |
| OCC | 130-134 | 126-130 |
| ONP | 140-144 | 140-144 |
| Mixed | 118-122 | 112-116 |
Recycled metals
Copper bounced back from last week’s £300 fall to recover at least £150 of that.
Aluminium grades, not including cans, were down £100 however.
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
