Jan-Feb 2018: revenues from US recovered fibre exports dip 7.5%

Global – As a result of China’s new import regime, the country slashed its purchases of US mixed/unsorted paper by 95.2% to 18 432 tonnes in the opening two months of 2018 from 384 887 tonnes in the same period last year, according to America’€™s Census Bureau and International Trade Commission.

Declines were also recorded for all other grades of recovered paper, including corrugated (-16.6% year on year), pulp substitutes (-60%) and printed news (-43.5%).

In revenue terms, China still represented the largest export market for US recovered fibre in the January-February 2018 period although the figure tumbled almost 39% year on year from nearly US$ 339 million to around US$ 207 million.

India made up for some of the lost revenue in increasing its payments for US fibre by more than 130% – from a fraction over US$ 42 million to approaching US$ 98 million.

Revenues from US recovered paper shipments to Indonesia and Vietnam also recorded triple-digit increases in the opening two months of this year, the former by 116.2% to US$ 19.6 million and the latter by 245.4% to US$ 13.3 million.

To all destinations, US revenues slid 7.5% year on year to just over US$ 494 million.