This month has largely seen stability across the board with some increases in OCC grades, multigrade and SOW.
On the domestic end, 1.04 OCC cardboard has increased by £5 on both the top and bottom end.
1.05 OCC cardboard has increased by £3 per tonne on both the top and bottom ends.
Multigrade and SOW have both increased by £5 per tonne on the top and bottom ends.
On the export side, 1.04 OCC cardboard has increased by £5 per tonne and 1.05 OCC has increased by £3 per tonne.
Multigrade has increased by £3 per tonne on the top end only. SOW did not record any increased on the export side of things.
Merchant prices saw minor increases this month, while all other grades have seen stability.
Contacts across the sector said that there was more demand for OCC than expected this month, particularly from the deep sea and European markets. It was suggested that this could be attributed to Southeast Asian mills taking advantage of current low shipping fees.
It was also impacted by increases in the price of the PRN and shipping delays into India driving up demand.
The increase in SOW was driven by a ramping up at the Essity Prudhoe mill, with rumours going around that they will be fully operational soon and will start increasing their demand as a result.
Across the board, there continues to be a lack of generation compared to historic levels. However, generation has seen a slightly higher this month – likely due to the good weather and the football World Cup.
It is worth noting that last week Palm announced that it will end the reprocessing of newsprint at its King’s Lynn mill in Norfolk, its only UK site and will covert its mill to produce corrugated case material (CCM) in the first quarter of 2027.
While this is yet to start effecting the domestic price, letsrecycle.com will closely monitor the situation and provide any updates when appropriate.
Looking forward
There have been mixed predictions for the coming months. Some contacts felt that OCC prices have likely now peaked and will start to come off, while others felt that the demand may continue for a short while.
With the war likely set to continue, oil prices are highly likely to start going up again which would effect prices.
View our more detailed paper price index here.
Register for free to comment