Posted on 19/04/2016 in category Paper
BIR World Mirror on Recovered Paper / Quarterly Report - April 2016
Ranjit Baxi, J&H Sales International Ltd
International Markets with a focus on Asia
The New Year started with fears that an increasing risk of global economic crisis would lead to recession affecting exports of recovered fibre. The GDPs of various economies were likely to be downgraded on concerns that global growth of 3.4% was unsustainable.
The slowdown of the Chinese economy - a key driver of the world economy - continued to be a major concern for all fibre exporters. Demand for recovered fibre and other commodities showed signs of significant slowing during the quarter.
Such a prolonged slowdown of the Chinese economy has not been seen in the last two decades. The Chinese government was working on a new policy based on shifting away from an export-led economy to one centred on domestic consumer demand, with a view to averting a deeper downturn.
Recovered fibre exporters began to accept this extended slowdown and were forced to look at other regions of the world to which to export their fibres. Emerging Asian economies like Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea were looking interesting. India continues to show signs of increased fibre demand for the coming years with its projected economic growth of 7.5% for two consecutive years.
Weakening oil prices, the Euro and lower freight rates helped to sustain an otherwise weak market (...)