There has been a recent price increase on waste paper products, as reflected in our prices at Just Paper Tubes. Generally, paper prices fall in line with supply and demand, but the demand has been higher than usual lately for paper waste from Europe. The fluctuation in currency conversion rates have also had an impact.
There are a couple major reasons for the increase. Prices have gone up significantly since January this year. The main cause of this paper price increase stems down to China and their increase in demand of paper waste products from Europe.
This year, China announced their National Sword initiative. This initiative is meant to crackdown on illegal smuggling of industrial waste. It is also being stricter with contaminated waste, having recently sent back tonnes of contaminated paper waste back to Ireland. With an increase in demand for their own paper products like packaging, China are relying on quality paper waste from trusted sources in Europe. Trusted paper and pulp trade publisher EUWID showed a record high on demand for old corrugated containers from the British market just this past June.
Major board manufacturers, like Sonoco-Alcore, have recently announced further price increases. Sonoco-Alcore released a statement earlier this month saying their recycled paperboard grades would be increased by £40/€50 per tonne due to this demand.
As previously mentioned, the ups and downs of the British Pound has also had an effect on paper prices. Since the Brexit vote and uncertainty thereafter, the Pound has struggled against the Euro. It had taken another slight knock after Theresa May’s slight victory in June. After failing to win the majority, there were a lot of questions surrounding the government, ultimately seeing the Pound continuing its instability. Prices on paper products in the United Kingdom have had to adjust to equate to that of the Euro.
China’s National Sword programme is only meant to last a year, but if it sees success, then the paper waste demand may continue to climb. At Just Paper Tubes, we continuously aim to keep our prices reflective of the current market, while still providing quality products, like our popular industrial cardboard tubes, and a superior 24/7 service.
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