While paper prices remained relatively stable over the first half of this month, decreases have been seen more recently across all grades.
The industry is bracing itself for prices to fall even further in the coming weeks.
Earlier this month, China announced that it was further tightening its dry pulp import rules.
On 9 October 2025, the General Administration of Customs (GACC) announced that importers must now declare whether recycled pulp was produced using a dry or wet method and undergo further testing once it reaches Chinese ports.
The testing is likely to cause delays of up to four to six weeks, having an impact on the demand from Southeast Asian mills and knock on effects on UK pricing – particularly OCC.
At the same time, oversupply has caused US mills to dramatically decrease their pricing to drive demand from India and Europe.
These two factors – described as a “perfect storm” by one contact – are likely to cause prices to drop for the UK paper industry, the effects of which haven’t been fully felt as of yet.
At the same time, several of our contacts reported that generation has improved this month which slightly mitigated the effects of the China and India pressures. This is likely to not be enough to prevent further decreases in November.
Effect on prices
Against the above backdrop, letsrecycle.com has recorded largely minor declines across all paper grades for the month of October – with a higher drop for OCC which is most effected by the new Chinese regulations.
Sorted Office Waste (SOW) and multigrade have both dropped more significantly due to very low European demand.
View our more detailed paper price index here.
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