BIR World Mirror on Recovered Paper / Quarterly Report - October 2015

Ranjit Baxi, J&H Sales International Ltd

International Markets with a focus on Asia

News of globally weakening demand and downward GDP revisions for leading world economies dominated the third quarter. Market demand and export orders were strongly driven by price coupled with quality demands.

Globally, markets were concerned about the health of the world’s second-largest economy, China. The world markets were looking for reassurance following the shock devaluation of the yuan and subsequent fall in the stock market, which gave rise to fears of a global slowdown. Overall demand and industrial output were affected both in China and the emerging economies.

However, markets gained confidence by the end of the quarter with the news that China’s economic growth was within the tolerance range and that it will achieve a growth rate of around 7.3% for the year.

Compared to the emerging economies, the developed economies of the Western World were showing signs of steady growth and increasing domestic demand, including notably the American as well as most of the European economies. There were other bright spots amid the economic gloom too: the falling price of oil continued to help keep sea freights low, with shipping lines able to maintain rates at competitive levels over the quarter despite decreasing trade volumes and container shortages at some European ports (...)

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