EPRC: Europe Enjoys Fiber Markets Near and Far

Generators and processors of scrap paper in Western Europe are currently enjoying healthy demand from consumers both near and far.

At the opening session of the 2007 European Paper Recycling Conference, paper industry consultant Bill Moore, Moore & Associates, Atlanta, noted that new papermaking capacity is coming online in Europe at the same time that demand is accelerating from Asia.

The region is responding to the demand for recovered fiber with vigor, as collection activity and recovery rates have been increasing in several Western European nations.

While Europe’s demand for fiber has helped, Moore noted that “the story still is China. China is driving the market and will for some time to come.”

To help that market function, Western Europe is seeing its recovery rate for scrap paper zoom from around 40 percent in 1990 to a projected 70 percent by 2012.

While some speculation has centered on China being able to generate more scrap domestically, Moore is not convinced. He remarked that while China’s “apparent recovery” rate is only about 34 percent based on domestic paper production, the actual figure rests at some 60 percent nationally and as much as 80 percent in some cities. So many boxes are exported that calculating based on domestic numbers is not practical.

China’s boost to the market remains in place, but Moore noted that “a stumbling point” of overcapacity on the containerboard side is likely at some point.

Frits Beurskens of Smurfit Kappa, who is also chairman of the European papermaking organization CEPI, noted that Europe’s paper recycling rate continues to move upward at “roughly one percent per year.”

The paper mill company executive also urged recyclers to keep their eyes on quality, as paper machines that “run faster and faster” are more reliant than ever on feedstock with minimal contamination.

Beurskens expressed alarm for European Union support for biomass energy that may soon have such alternative energy facilities competing for portions of the fiber stream to be used as fuel. “This will be the most important issue in our industry for the next few years,” Beurskens predicted.

Also at the opening session, Niels Sogaard of DanFiber AS in Denmark gave an overview of the cooperative fiber collection program for municipalities in that nation.

The source-separated collection program allows DanFiber to supply clean streams of fiber grades that are in demand by paper mills, according to Sogaard. Regarding commingled collection, Sogaard said, “Maybe it will come—I hope not.”

The 2007 European Paper Recycling Conference, organized by the Recycling Today Media Group, was held in at the Hilton Amsterdam Oct. 3-5.