The demand for recovered fiber remains strong in much of Europe, but any scrap paper that is not used in Europe is being snapped up by the export market.

Speakers on the keynote panel of the European Paper Recycling Conference, which took place in Brussels in early October, predicted a continuation of healthy demand for Europe’s scrap paper, meaning collectors and shippers can continue to boost recovery efforts.

“Over the past decades, the paper industry has grown tremendously, especially in Europe; it has bypassed America,” noted Herbert Noichl of Austria’s Mayr-Meinhof Karton AG.

The growth of Europe’s paper and board production has been second to only Asia, noted Noichl. He also predicted, “Rapid growth will move from Western to Eastern Europe.”

Many of Europe’s mills use recovered fiber, which means that most of the 50 million tons of scrap paper collected last year stayed on the continent. Noichl said about 10 percent of Europe’s recovered fiber is exported, although “this percentage is growing,” he noted.

Noichl foresees Europe’s recovery rate increasing from its current 60 percent up to a range of 64 to 67 percent in the next five years. “We will continue to be an exporter to the rest of the world,” he predicted.

Much of that export tonnage is now heading to China, noted Wade Schuetzeberg, managing director of ACN (Europe), a Rotterdam brokerage that procures tonnage for the Nine Dragons mill complex in China.

Mills in China are now buying consistently from North America and Europe, rather than participating on a spot basis. The global trade between China and the rest of the world is “part of a wider trading loop that feeds into the recovered fiber market,” remarked Schuetzeberg.

More papermaking capacity is going online in China, but “the highest growth rate, I believe, is behind us,” Schuetzeberg said of the containerboard and boxboard segments.

But China’s new appetite for scrap paper has brought sustainable benefits, he added. “The outlook for paper recycling has never been better,” said Schuetzeberg. “Trade has increased [and] so has pricing.”

Moderator Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, Atlanta, remarked that the scrap paper market has truly become global, as price changes tend to take effect quickly and globally.

Moore also singled out the European paper industry as having become the “mill recycling technology leaders,” while, “The U.S. paper industry is falling behind in maintaining its capital base, upgrading its technology [or] investing in research and development.”

The European Paper Recycling Conference was hosted by the Recycling Today Media Group and took place at the Hilton Brussels.