On June 30, the CCTV Finance Channel “Tianxia Finance” launched the program “Environmentally Friendly Paper Market Observation”. After visiting Zhejiang Shanying Paper and a waste transfer station in Ningbo, Zhejiang, it was found that the price of waste paper recycling had increased compared with the same period last year by approximately 20%. Industry insiders believe that with the arrival of the peak season, packaging paper and waste paper prices may usher in a new round of increases in the second half of the year.
Waste paper increased by 300-500 yuan/ton from the beginning of the year
At Shanying Paper Co., Ltd., located in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, the person in charge Li Yunpeng said that the export orders received by the company have increased significantly recently, and the workshop is running at full capacity, but the supply of waste paper raw materials cannot meet the demand. Compared with the beginning of the year, the price of recycling has also increased significantly.
Li Yunpeng, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Jiaxing Shanying Paper Co., Ltd.: “After the import of waste paper is completely banned, the waste paper gap is relatively large. The price of waste paper recycling has risen from 2200-2300 yuan/ton at the beginning of the year to about 2500 yuan/ton.”
At present, waste paper is generally divided into different grades according to the level of fiber content, and the price of waste paper with higher wood fiber content has a greater price increase. Li Yunpeng: “Our A grade kraft paper has risen to 3,300 yuan/ton, which was only 2500-2600 yuan/ton. A-grade and B-grade waste paper have also increased significantly, and this year’s increase has basically exceeded 300-500 yuan/ton.”
The recycling price of waste transfer stations has also increased
The situation is similar in a waste transfer station in Ningbo, Zhejiang. All kinds of waste paper recycled here account for 60% of the total waste.
Recently, the recycling price of waste paper collected by the staff of the waste transfer station in supermarkets and residents’ homes has also increased. Its person in charge, Li Qilong, said: “The price of book paper is about the same as before. The waste paper for daily life is 70 or 80 cents per catty at the beginning of the year, and now it has risen to about nine cents per catty, and there are cases where one dollar per catty.”
Large-scale paper mills expand overseas pulp production lines
The shortage of waste paper is inseparable from the new regulations on solid waste issued by the state at the end of 2020. In this regard, how do domestic paper companies respond?
In the raw materials of cardboard and corrugated paper, the proportion of waste paper generally accounts for more than 85%. In recent years, with the tightening of foreign waste paper import policies, many large paper mills have made adjustments to deploy overseas and set up pulp production lines abroad. As a result, imported waste paper was converted to imported pulp to ensure domestic product supply.
Yan Dalin, vice president of a paper company in Shanghai: “We have successively deployed about 1.5 million tons of waste paper pulp production capacity in Southeast Asia and Europe. At the same time, we are currently using new raw materials in China that can replace external waste or overseas waste pulp fibers.”
The price trend of waste paper is closely related to the price changes of corrugated cardboard. At present, the inventory of many corrugated cardboard manufacturers in the market has been overstocked, which has restrained the rise in paper prices. With the peak season approaching near, regular packaging paper(including coated Duplex board) and waste paper prices may usher in a new round of increases in the second half of the year.
