Posted on 24/10/2011 in category Paper
BIR World Mirror on Recovered Paper / Quarterly Report - October 2011
PRESIDENT’S REPORT featuring Asia
by Ranjit Baxi, J&H Sales International Ltd
The global economy is going through challenging times. The Euro-zone debt crisis, rising unemployment, weakening consumer spending, rising interest rates and fears of recession - or a “double dip” - are individually or jointly affecting economies around the world in one form or another.
Advanced economies are slowing down sharply while those of the emerging nations are facing increased risks of inflation due to rising interest rates and/or credit tightening. Financial institutions, once again, must endure increased stress caused by non-compliance. Global recovery is becoming ever more difficult, with some fearing that another financial/economic crisis could perhaps develop into something worse than what we saw in 2008/09.
The above factors are affecting both demand for recovered fibre as well as order books at the paper mills. Reduced collections and weakening orders greatly affected prices during the third quarter. The steady demand that we saw in the second quarter continued into July, but by mid-August we noticed a downturn in demand leading to a price drop, which by mid-September had translated into sharply weaker prices all round. (...)