US warning as Chinese firms look at UK paper mills

The confirmation of possible Chinese investment came in discussions of China’s crackdown on imports of paper for recycling during a global recycling event in London, on Saturday (6 October).

Paper recyclers from across the world heard from a group of speakers about China and related issues at the Paper Division meeting of the Bureau of International Recycling held at London’s O2 Intercontinental Hotel.

Guest speaker Deborah Sacks, waste and resources specialist at the UK’s Department for International Trade was tackled by division president Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, head of Paprec Recyclage (France) on Brexit. He warned it would be more difficult for Britain to export after Brexit: “at the moment you just complete annex seven and the materials can go without any delays to Spain or France or other countries”.

Ms Sacks responded that “Britain is open for trade and we want to carry on trading with the rest of the world.”

She added that “we want capital investment into the UK… there is a huge will that exports will continue to flow but there concern about costs.

“Perhaps we have to question the export of materials and ask are we exporting jobs with it? Should we make our own reprocessing capacity more competitive?”

And, the UK official noted: “Chinese paper mills are looking at the UK, Europe and Eastern Europe for investment”.

China warning

The desire by Chinese mills to invest overseas was questioned by Adina Adler senior director of international relations at the influential American recycling association ISRI; she is also a former American government trade director.

The ISRI official issued a warning to the audience, which included representatives from the paper recycling sector through to mills that: “China will become a competitor for you all. China is closing its doors to our markets and our markets are wide open and that’s not a level playing field.”

2020 ban

The idea that China will completely ban the import of waste paper, even if it is high quality used cardboard, from 2020, was also discussed at the meeting.

Some in the audience thought that a ban would be implemented but in stages from 2020.

Francisco Donoso of Spain’s Alba Servicios Verdes, said that it is “not easy to foresee what will happen. One year ago we thought China might go back on the 0.5 or 0.3% and that Chinese paper mills would be damaged. But the fact is that they have not gone back at all. There are more and more strict quality requirements and inspections. I rather think they are going to ban it in one year or two years or three.”

Keith Trower, managing director of Viridor Resource Management and a vice president of the BIR paper division, said that China’s measures were a wake-up call to everyone and that Viridor has invested “heavily in our assets to improve our quality.” He added that there were signs that local authorities were starting to improve the quality of material too.

Mill developments

•  Nine Dragons is thought to be actively looking at opportunities in the UK with other groups also looking at investment outside of China. The UK is seen as a possible location for investment because of good water supplies and low energy costs (see letsrecycle.com story)