Merchants and packers and paper mill buyers are on opposite sides of many transactions, but they share a common pursuit of maintaining good customer relations and offering their market a quality product. Fibre traders connected with three different global companies agreed on that common ground at a mill buyers’ panel convened at the 2010 European Paper Recycling Conference (EPRC).
The panel, hosted by paper and recycling industry consultant Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, Atlanta, included Kurt Martens of Norske Skog subsidiary Reparco, Nuno Messias of Spain-based Europac and Jim Pope of U.S. -based Smurfit-Stone.
After the topic of nations preventing recovered fiber from being exported was presented to panelists, Pope said the notion does not gain much support in the United States. “The export business is critical to support the collection infrastructure,” he commented. “Without export [markets], there would be a negative effect on overall recovery.”
Pope urged attendees to be less focused on the distance of where shipments are heading and more focused on attentiveness to customers. “We don’t do business with countries, we do business with customers,” Pope stated.
Asked about mill companies operating recycling depots and collection arms, all three panelists said their companies are committed to it. Messias said Europac is likely to continue to do so because “we worry about having sources of raw material.”
Martens cited a similar philosophy for Norske Skog. “It is a matter of supply security,” he commented.
Pope replied, “It’s a good business to be in. Our recycling division is set up to be a profit center.” He also remarked that among the biggest challenges faced by any mill buyer is “the shrinking pool of supply.”
Recovered fiber quality was a common concern of all panelists, and referred to by Pope as a “shared responsibility” among mills and packers.
Said Martens, “I think if you care about quality, in the long run you will win. Even when the market gets softer, [quality suppliers] will still get orders.”
Messias said quality manufacturing cannot take place without good supply. “There is no way we can produce quality paper without quality raw material.”
The 2010 European Paper Recycling Conference was Nov. 3-4 at the Sheraton Congress Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany.