The price of waste paper imported from Europe in the Southeast Asia region (SEA) and India has plummeted, which in turn has led to a dislocation in the price of waste paper imported from the United States and Japan in the region. Affected by the large-scale cancellation of orders in India and the continued economic downturn in China, which has hit the packaging market in the region, the price of European 95/5 waste paper in Southeast Asia and India has dropped sharply from $260-270/ton in mid-June. $175-185/ton in late July.
Since late July, the market has maintained a downward trend. The price of high-quality waste paper imported from Europe in Southeast Asia continued to fall, reaching US$160-170/ton last week. The decline in European waste paper prices in India appears to have stopped, closing last week at around $185/t. SEA’s mills attributed the decline in European waste paper prices to local levels of recycled waste paper and high inventories of finished products.
It is said that the cardboard market in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam has performed strongly in the past two months, with the prices of recycled corrugated paper in various countries reaching above US$700/ton in June, supported by their domestic economies. But local prices for recycled corrugated paper have fallen to $480-505/t this month as demand has fallen and cardboard mills have shut down to cope.
Last week, suppliers facing inventory pressure were forced to give up and sell No. 12 US waste at SEA at $220-230/t. Then they learned that Indian buyers were returning to the market and snapping up scrap imported waste paper to meet growing packaging demand ahead of India’s traditional fourth-quarter peak season.
As a result, major sellers followed suit last week, refusing to make further price concessions.
After the sharp drop, both buyers and sellers are assessing whether the waste paper price level is near or even bottoming out. Although prices have fallen so low, many mills have yet to see signs that the regional packaging market may recover by the end of the year, and they are reluctant to increase their waste paper stocks, it said. However, customers have increased their waste paper imports while reducing their local waste paper tonnage. Domestic waste paper prices in Southeast Asia are still hovering around US$200/ton.
Post time: Sep-08-2022