Paper

While industry watchers have noted all year that paper recycling markets are showing significant improvement, during the recently concluded National Recycling Coalition’s Annual Congress a roster of speakers touted the substantial shift in market conditions during the past year.

Stan Lancey with the American Forest & Paper Association, Washington, touched on the dynamics occurring in the domestic paper industry. He said that during the past several years recovered fiber demands have jumped significantly. Additionally, the price of the material has increased sharply.

In his presentation, Bill Moore, principal of Moore & Associates, Atlanta, noted that strong demand has been abetted by increased investment, principally in Asia.

While Europe has supplied fiber to China, several industry watchers say that Europe, in light of its own increase in secondary fiber consuming mill capacity, will move from a net exporter of recovered fiber to a net importer.

Although the United States is not increasing capacity, the improved economy is boosting overall markets.

With domestic mills running better schedules and the Asian market expected to continue to purchase more fiber to feed its new capacity, markets for many grades are expected to continue enjoying renewed strength.

While high grades may show some improvement, the old corrugated grade and mixed paper grades may benefit most from a growing market in China.