Exporting to China – UK paper would be first to get the chop.

Europe’s largest supplier of recovered paper to China has warned that quality and price are currently working against UK exporters. In a graphic presentation in Birmingham recently, Wade Schuetzeberg, senior buyer for ACN who supply, amongst others, the Nine Dragons Mills, painted a worrying picture of poor quality materials being supplied with long, inflexible delivery times, resulting in UK paper exports being extremely vulnerable. Japan, by contrast (see graph) is just 4 days sail away and supplies good quality material. Even the US has a clear advantage over UK sourced paper.

As the world’s largest single exporter of paper to China, ACN, (with operations across Europe and the US), Schuetzeberg warned that China also has a rapidly emerging internal paper market and that quality controls are being “stepped up both globally and locally.” Emphasizing the ‘value’ of the product he reminded collection authorities that “UK material has to compete against global fiber substitutes, and in this arena quality undoubtedly counts.” He went on to comment that “not all market participants have the UK’s best long term interests in mind” making reference to how quickly UK based sellers might be dropped if paper demand fell due to the recession.

Citing numerous incidences of serious contamination, Schuetzeberg warned that as an exporter he would retain his high quality suppliers in preference to low quality supplies, because, as he put it “I know I can find an end market if I can maintain quality”.

The long term demand for such quantities of paper by the Chinese markets has also been called into question as China’s own internal used fiber market develops. China is recycling more of its own paper and in the long term this internal supply will not only be cheaper but also be from a more stable and controllable supply chain.

Phil Hurst of the Campaign for Real Recycling said: “Exports to the Far East may be viable for the immediate future, but with the move towards longer waste contracts, the long term stability of final destinations needs to be given a higher priority when planning recycling systems.”

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