Furthermore, more PRNs are available than had been anticipated. One expert said that if someone was to buy 35,000 PRNs for 3.25 then this would contrast sharply with the prices paid by compliance schemes generally.
Last month the export-PRNs were sought by one firm of accountants, Morgan, Brown & Spofforth of London. It sent out a letter, on behalf of an unnamed client, by recorded delivery to firms eligible to issue export PRNs saying it had a client that would buy them for 3.25 each. This offer has now closed, the accountants said today, as the legislation only permits export PRNs to be used until the end of December.
Now, bids have been placed on the OM Environment Exchange for domestic PRNs at the same price. Seven separate offers to buy 5,000 PRNs at 3.75 per tonne (which includes the 50p per tonne Exchange charge) have been placed. PRNs can still be issued this month for material delivered in December 2001.
Exchange managing director Angus Macpherson said he could not reveal the name of the company or scheme looking to buy the PRNs at the low price. However, he did say that the bids had “reduced confidence in the market”.
One industry source told letsrecycle that it was most likely that a single member of the Exchange had placed the offers and that it was more likely to be a compliance scheme which was looking to buy the 35,000 PRNs than an individual company. He added that if the scheme failed to make purchases it would be logical to assume that the scheme was short of PRNs. “The question would then be asked that if the scheme was short of PRNs had it made sufficient efforts to buy them by putting in a low bid,” letsrecycle.com was told.
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