November has seen a surplus supply of mixed paper on the Italian recovered paper market. The price for the grade went down as a result.
Italian recovered paper prices are crumbling in November. After a few prices for ordinary grades softened a little in the past few weeks, November ushered in more pronounced price cuts, notably for mixed paper (1.02). Ample supply was primarily responsible for depressing prices for this grade. Exports to Asia had tended to decrease rather than increase in November, meaning that more recovered paper stayed in Italy, market players said. What is more, the rebuilt paper machine of a major Italian paper manufacturer is reportedly still not running smoothly and is operating at reduced capacity. This company was therefore consuming and ordering much less recovered paper, especially mixed paper, than usual, insiders noted.
Market players also reported that Italy's packaging paper mills were busy and machines were typically running at good capacity utilisation, but that manufacturers still had well-stocked warehouses. Quite a few recovered paper merchants complained that nobody was interested in buying mixed paper at present and trading volumes were light. One paper manufacturer, however, noted, "If someone offers us mixed paper, we won't turn it down. But we want to pay less for it."
