BIR World Mirror on Recovered Paper / Quarterly Report - January 2013

PRESIDENT’S REPORT featuring Asia
by Ranjit Baxi, J&H Sales International Ltd

European and Asian demand for the fourth quarter of 2012 started to look more bullish with the news that some of the European economies were signalling possible emergence from the recessionary trends seen earlier in the year.

October began with a strengthening of fibre prices, leading into November with the market anticipating a firmer end to the quarter. However, after mid-November, exports to China slowed as many of the medium-sized mills had utilised their import allocations for the year, and also because, with the approaching Chinese New Year holidays, most of the exports shipped from Europe from mid-December to early January were likely to arrive in the shut-down period.

With the Christmas closures in Europe, there was a rather weak and volatile December market in which prices and supply were chasing each other.

The anticipated longshoremen’s strike at US ports, which was due to take place at the end of 2012, has again been postponed to sometime early in the first quarter of 2013 (...)

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