The recycling sector remains a tough one to trade in at present, with lots of factors conspiring against it.
That said, the high PRN/PERN price continues to assist the plastic market (more below).
However, the paper sector is finding the market rather challenging at the moment.
Metals remain relatively stable.
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Haulage is proving an increasingly difficult issue for buyers and sellers across the recycling sector. The uncertainty around Brexit is making haulage companies reluctant to head into Europe, while European hauliers are not that keen on coming here either.
Delays of up to three weeks in getting material collected from yards are increasingly commonplace.
The dollar was just a touch lower at $1.30 this week, compared to $1.31 a week ago. It wasn’t enough of a change to stimulate any additional demand from UK markets.
While the euro was stable at €1.16 this week.
Recycled plastics
Demand remains good from Europe with the high PRN/PERN price helping to stimulate interest in UK material.
Despite the difficulties in getting haulage, UK plastic grades are exceptional value at the moment because of the high PRN/PERN price.
Although it came off by a couple of quid this week, the £160+ PRN/PERN is helping to subsidise the price of packaging grades.
Bottles, HDPE in particular, are in good demand. Film is also seeing plenty of interest for higher grades such as 99/1 and 98/2. Below that is harder to shift.
Asian interest has also picked up a little due to the good value of the material, but there is also caution around sending it there due to tough inspection regimes.
| 1-week | 4-week | |
| PET | 314-320 | 313-319 |
| HDPE | 560-566 | 557-563 |
| LDPE | 355-361 | 353-359 |
Recycled paper
It was a very quiet week again for the recovered paper market, with trading volumes low.
There is talk that Chinese quota for Q2 is down by over 10% on Q1 worldwide, meaning approximately 300,000 tonnes will not be permitted for import into China.
With demand from China already low as a result of the increasingly reduced quota, it doesn’t seem that it will flood back into the market anytime soon, if ever.
UK and European demand is also weakening. With manufacturing performance in Europe contracting, there is likely to be less demand for finished product. Mills are already close to full up, and there is currently an incentive for them to use this material and only restocking when onsite volumes are low.
Prices remained stable this week however.
| 1-week | 4-week | |
| OCC | 83-87 | 82-86 |
| ONP | 101-105 | 99-103 |
| Mixed | 26-30 | 26-30 |
Recycled metals
Prices across all grades saw no change this week.
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
