Paper sector well-positioned as economy begins recovery

Addressing the Recycling and Waste Forum at London's ExCeL, representatives of consultants, trade associations and paper reprocessors also said that the export market would be as important as ever for future growth of the sector and that trade.

Assessing the long term ambitions of the sector and the current performance, Ranjit Baxi, paper division president of the Bureau of International Recycling, claimed the response to the recession had been a “triumph” and highlighted the difficult circumstances the industry has had to contend with.

He said: “In the last six months, we were required to keep in with the challenging and difficult period. We faced newspaper reports telling us this is the worst recession in history, that it may lead to deflation and then depression and that global trade was slowing down. There were newspaper reports telling us that the recycling industry was coming to an end.”

Despite the downturn, Mr Baxi explained that, over the five quarters from January 2008 to March 2009, Europe had increased its exports from 1.893 million tonnes of recovered paper in the first quarter of 2008 to 1.955 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2009. He said: “I think it is excellent. This proves how important recovered fibre is.”

Mr Baxi – who is managing director of London-based recovered paper export firm J & H Sales International – also claimed that China and India, although increasing reprocessing capacity, lacked raw materials and would continue to seek to import recovered paper for production.

Export

Echoing Mr Baxi's praise for the performance of the export market, David Powlson of Finnish firm Poyry Forest Industry Consulting claimed that the industry was well prepared for future developments but that there were still some issues with regards to export trade.

“Times have been difficult recently but we see, in the long term, the industry is well positioned”, said Mr Powlson. “China's influence on our export is growing and in that sense it is a strength, weakness and threat for the sector – as it creates a reliance on an external market.”

However, Mr Powlson said that there were a number of reasons to remain optimistic of the long term benefits of export due to the inherent need of material in the Far East and India markets.

He said: “There are a number of key factors around China, which mean we are becoming increasingly smaller [in global paper reprocessing]. With China, the economy is slowing but it is still growing and the drivers for demand from the Far East are the thirst for production and the lack of raw materials within the country itself.”