The market for paper recyclables has moved up in November. The movement has been strong enough to improve the value of ResMix in spite of selected price declines in the plastic grades. To begin this month’s analysis, I must admit that I was not expecting to see a price increase in November given what we… Read more »

The market for recyclable commodities has once again dropped significantly over the past four weeks. This is especially true for the export market where OCC has declined by as much as $55/ton and ONP by $30/Ton. These declines have occurred because of the normal seasonal factor of lower demand in the Fall, as well as… Read more »

Chaos is the word that best describes the market for many recyclable commodities today. Since last month the Chinese government has become more strident in their resolve to ban the importation of MIX paper and all grades of scrap plastic. Mill buyers have become more fearful. Orders for MIX are virtually non-existent and are not… Read more »

The market for all of the residential paper grades declined significantly for August. The why feels like “deja’ vu all over again”. In the past two weeks the Chinese government has announced that they will no longer purchase Mixed Paper as well as all residential scrap plastics of all types by the end of this… Read more »

The market for July, while a mixed bag among the grades, has continued to improve overall, primarily due to increases in MIX Paper and Newspaper. The increase in paper pricing is a continuation of the trend of the past three months where paper pricing is responding to mill demand after the disruption of National Sword… Read more »

The overall yield value for ResMix has improved significantly in June due almost exclusively to an increase in paper pricing, most notably for cardboard. As usual the underlying causes of the improved pricing have both a local as well as an international story. Locally, domestic linerboard and medium mills have full order backlogs and are… Read more »

The market for recyclables, especially for paper grades has continued to improve over the past four weeks. All of us want to know why and how long these improved prices will last. The why is straightforward but often misunderstood. It is misunderstood because the why is a series of actions (or a chain reaction) that… Read more »

The market for recyclables, especially for the paper grades has continued to improve for January. The story here is demand, specifically a shift in demand. (In this case, a shift to the right). Given the vertical supply curve for co-mingled recyclables, when demand shifts the reaction from price will be significant which was certainly the… Read more »

Overall, pricing for November is improved from October. The improvement is based on a number of factors which are likely to be temporary with one notable exception, which is the overall strength of the US Economy. The temporary factors include Chinese importers competing with each other to expand their total imports in 2016 because their… Read more »

Pricing for recyclables in October is down significantly, especially for all of the paper grades. The causal factors of this decline are both the normal seasonal drop in demand and the surprise bankruptcy of Hanjin Container Line, which was a large container shipping company based in South Korea. Hajin filed for bankruptcy in early September… Read more »