All quiet on the paper front

Recycling Today, August, 2005

Keeping pace with June, markets for recovered fiber have remained relatively quiet. Sources report little activity of either extreme--the first few weeks of July have seen neither aggressive buying nor piling inventories.

Material of all grades continues to move, some more slowly in certain regions than others. Summer tends to be a slower time of year, with mills taking some time off, says one Northeastern processor.

Mixed paper has been lagging behind the other grades, says a source from the Northeast, but the market's heavy-hitters--old corrugated containers (OCC) and old newspapers (ONP)--continue to move at a pace on par with the time of year.

Generation is steady, even up in some places like coastal communities and tourist areas that are hitting the peak of the summer vacation season.

Sources say that the current market activity is primarily domestic and that the export front has been quiet for weeks.

Another trend that's shown no sign of letting up--to the chagrin of many--is the sad pace and price for sorted office paper (SOP), which has been down for months and has "taken a turn to the uglier side," says one Midwestern processor.

Secure document shredding firms are glutting the market with the grade, and the shredding has had some negative effects on the material's quality, causing problems on both the supply and demand sides of the market, sources say.

But the flat market of the past few weeks could be a lull before the storm, sources say, as the industry will be gearing up for the big packaging season starting in a few months, which leads some to think that many grades--COO in particular--could be ready for an upturn.

(Additional news about paper recycling markets, including breaking news and pricing, is available online at www.Recycling.Today.com.)