The German recovered paper market continues to be very balanced. While collection volumes are low, overall demand from the paper industry is also modest.
Prices for the ordinary grades mixed paper and supermarket paper and board therefore remained stable again in February. Slight adjustments were only reported in scattered cases in some regions.
For the other grades as well, market participants report only minor price tweaks in the current month.
However, waste management companies believe that considerable price increases might be possible in the near future: They point to the traditionally weak arisings in February and March, the prospect of logistics bottlenecks around Easter, potential further acceleration of export activity, and especially the experience from previous years.
Yet, other market participants believe the announced paper machine downtimes are more likely to lead to reduced demand from the industry in the near future. Moreover, mills had delivered significantly more finished paper in January because their customers had moved forward their ordering in anticipation of rising prices, explained one respondent from the paper industry. The situation is therefore not comparable with last year, and a sudden rise in recovered paper demand, along with higher prices, is unlikely, EUWID was told.
