Speaking through an interpreter, Tsim Tak-Yuen of Pacific Rise Development Ltd., Hong Kong, said that China’s plastic scrap imports were split relatively evenly between the United States, Europe and Asia, and that no new restrictions or procedures had been imposed on this material entering the country. Scrap plastics had to pass an inspection and conform to existing rules laid down by the Chinese government.
As for market conditions in China, Tak-Yuen described the recent fall in some plastics scrap prices as part of a regular cycle. He added that the recession was a healthy and logical period of readjustment.’ Taking polyethylene and polypropylene as an example, he said price falls had been dramatic since the beginning of the third quarter but were necessary because prices had earlier reached an unreasonably high level compared to prime materials.
Roundtable chairman Peter Daalder of The Netherlands pointed to major differences between the Asian and European markets. Western Europe’s recyclers were afraid that they would be unable to obtain sufficient supplies and that they were ‘still paying too much for bad qualities’. However, he believed there was sufficient material available, adding that as much as 30,000 metric tons of unprocessed PET bottles could be lying in storage in Western Europe.
Daalder believed the price of regranulates would drop in the near future because of the unsustainable situation where better-quality ‘off-spec’ virgin material was being offered at similar prices. The price fall for regranulate material could be as much as 100 Euro within a month, he ventured.
Daalder said prices for plastics scrap in Western Europe were either stable or falling. For example, polyethylene prices had fallen recently by around 20 Euro per metric ton, while a similar reduction was anticipated from November for polystyrene ground products. Technical plastics such as ABS, PC and PMMA were experiencing good demand but prices on the Asian market had slumped by as much as 200 Euro per metric ton, he added.
Jacques Musa of France-based Soulier said his home market had slowed slightly, although prices for first-choice materials - such as HDPE and LDPE, as well as mono- and co-polymer polypropylene - remained ‘good’ at around 8 percent down from this past July. For secondary plastics, prices in France remained firm and demand had been ‘sustained’.
According to Musa, Italy had experienced a sharp drop in production since the terrorist attacks of September 11. Price changes had been announced for plastics even though demand had not been totally satisfied in some areas, particularly secondary materials. Companies in Spain were expecting a downturn, despite a reduction in secondary material offered on the market.