Mixed paper’s steep decline dents UK fibre export total

United Kingdom – Breaking four consecutive months of year-on-year growth, UK recovered paper exports tumbled 7.8% in July to 343 037 tonnes from 371 883 tonnes in the same month last year, according to latest statistics released by the Confederation of Paper Industries and HM Revenue & Customs. As a result, the UK’s overseas shipments across the opening seven months of 2017 were down 3.2% at 2.801 million tonnes as against the 2.894 million tonnes of January-July last year.

Over the comparative seven-month periods, UK exports of mixed paper slumped 13.6% to 853 926 tonnes whereas shipments of OCC climbed 5.8% to 1.609 million tonnes – despite a year-on-year decline of 10.1% in July.

UK mills upped their recovered fibre consumption by 2.4% in July to give a seven-month running total for this year of 1.82 million tonnes – an increase of 1.2% over the 1.798 million tonnes of 2016’s corresponding period. The country’s collection volumes fell 1.5% to 4.553 million tonnes in the year to July from 4.624 million tonnes in the opening seven months of last year.