Page 47 from: May 2015

47May 2015

P A P E R

ed the trend towards decreasing import volumes

and thus greater levels of competition between

the global supplying regions of the USA, Europe,

Japan, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. ‘It is

worth noting that Europe is gradually losing its

market share,’ Baxi pointed out.

In the past year, exporters in most of the leading

European nations have witnessed a drop-off in

fibre demand from China. During the first quar-

ter of 2015, however, the Chinese and wider

Asian markets have gradually intensified their

demand for European fibre, partly in response

to a steady reduction in mill inventories of

recovered paper, as was stated in the April issue

of the BIR’s ‘World Mirror on Recovered Paper’.

However, Europe cannot sit back and rest on its

laurels, especially against the background of

increasing domestic collections in China which

directly influence the import volumes contract-

ed by this important market player. And owing

to the domestic recycling programmes being

promoted by China and other Asian countries,

these collection volumes ‘are increasing rapidly’,

said Baxi. Indeed, he is convinced that China

will be in a position to export some lower grades

of recovered paper within the next five years.

Another factor to have an impact on fibre ship-

ments is ocean freight rates. Shipping lines

independently review their rates and adjust

them in accordance with market conditions.

Over the last few years, there has been very lit-

tle change but this year has brought hikes on

most major routes. ‘Increases of about US$ 100-

200 (per container) have been proposed,’ Baxi

told delegates in Berlin. And he called on ship-

ping lines to ‘work closely with us and not uni-

laterally impose freight rate increases at levels

which shift the market to other regions’.

Tailor your product
While having little or no influence on freight

rates, European paper recyclers hold all the

threads in their hands to produce quality fibre.

And they have to pull the strings, as Baxi high-

lighted in his speech. He urged suppliers to

tailor their products to meet the needs of paper

mill buyers who are demanding the highest

quality at the lowest price. ‘For this purpose,

we need to work closely with our Asian mill

buyers to ensure that not only do we sustain

our export volumes but also we maintain

acceptable quality at globally competitive pric-

es,’ he added.

That is easier said than done. There was a con-

sensus at the Berlin conference that the paper

recycling industry may find it difficult to

achieve the required quality levels, not least

because treatment plants are receiving increas-

ingly poor-quality material from collection

points. Offering the manufacturers’ point of

view, this trend was confirmed by Vermeulen.

‘What we see is a growing amount of unwant-

ed materials in recovered paper due to co-min-

gled collection,’ he stated.

In order to counteract the declining quality of

recovered paper supplies, his company Smurfit

Kappa is going to improve the input controls

across its European mills by 2018. It will equip

the mills with core-drilling rigs to take samples

from paper bales which will then be analysed

using a near-infrared lamp in what is a large-

ly-automated process that has the advantage of

being very time-efficient and also not

labour-intensive, Vermeulen explained. This

sampling process will take only a few minutes

and can cover all incoming loads fully. In addi-

tion, the system is able to determine moisture

percentages, non-paper components, ash con-

tent and fibrous composition in the case of, for

example, mixed paper and OCC.

Paying the price
Andreas Uriel from Uriel Papierrohstoffe in

Germany, a member of the bvse’s recovered

paper board, reported on a comparable

automated input control system at a paper

mill in Spain where near-infrared

technology is used to measure the different

parameters. ‘No more than two minutes elapse

before each truckload is sampled,’ he explained.

‘Up to 200 truckloads are controlled this way

every day.’ Clearly impressed with this technol-

ogy, he added: ‘I cannot but wonder what the

consequences will be for the daily business of

European recovered paper suppliers. Will we

find ourselves confronted with the necessity to

retrofit and upgrade our sorting plants across

the EU?’

According to Uriel, suppliers ‘have been and

continue to be guarantors of supply security

and quality’ and ‘are therefore an indispensable

link in the paper chain’. In practice, however,

these modern technologies may exceed what

suppliers are able to offer given that they are

already facing numerous concerns and chal-

lenges, including: ever-shorter terms for com-

munity tenders; losses of volume owing to

structural changes such as in the graphic paper

sector; direct paper industry contracts with

municipal and commercial collection points;

and escalating bureaucratic pressure. ‘All this

deprives us of the necessary calculation relia-

bility for capital expenditures,’ he pointed out.

As far as recovered paper suppliers are con-

cerned, a greater level of sorting could be

achieved only if they were fully remunerated

by customers, it was suggested. Paper mills

therefore would have to pay the price for high-

er-quality fibre.

Ranjit Baxi: China to export
lower grades of recovered paper
within the next fi ve years.

Andreas Uriel: suppliers being an
indispensable link in the paper
chain.

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