Volume 11, Issue 4
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OCT-DEC 2014
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ATTENTION: READERS !
Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, please check out these leading companies advertised in this issue:
Collection & Storage Containers Bomac Carts – pg 9 Jake, Connor & Crew – pg 10
Equipment Financing TransLease Inc – pg 20
Lock & Locking Systems Lock America Intl. – pg 19
Mobile Truck Shredders Alpine Shredders Ltd – pg 4 Ameri-Shred Corp – pg 8 Shred-Tech Limited – pg 13 Vecoplan LLC – pg 15
China Appears to Have Maxed-out on Demand for Recovered Paper Imports
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Moving Floor System Keith Manufacturing – pg 11
Software EZshred – pg 6
Stationary Shredders & Grinders Allegheny Shredders – pg 19 Ameri-Shred Corp – pg 8 Shred-Tech Limited – pg 13 UNTHA – pg 2 Vecoplan LLC – pg 15
Trade Associations
NAID (National Association of Information Destruction) – pg 5
Waste Commodity Purchasers Dan-Mar Components – pg 3
Web Design
Chachka Group – pg 12
By Ken McEntee
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage
PAID
Mentor, OH Permit No. 2
n September, U.S. recovered paper exports to China dropped to the lowest monthly volume in more than four years, according to trade data from the U.S. Commerce Department. The 10 percent August-toSeptember decline continued a noticeable trend: U.S. exports to China have declined in three of the last four years. A 7 percent drop last year followed a 1 percent reduction in U.S. exports to China between 2011 and 2012. In 2011, exports rebounded with a 23 percent increase following a 9 percent reduction between 2009 and 2010. Through the first nine months of 2014, exports to China were down 4 percent compared to the same time in 2013. If the January-to-September trend holds, exports to China will finish the year 10 percent below the record 15.8 million tons shipped in 2011. In 2011, with Chinese paper and paperboard producers continuing to announce large expansions on production capacity, U.S. traders generally expected demand from that market to increase for years to come. With the backdrop of those huge expectations, doom and gloom set in when the Chinese government implemented its dreaded Operation Green Fence initiative in February 2013. The tight quality restrictions on China-bound scrap paper, exporters feared, would drop a heavy roadblock on shipments to the world’s hungriest market. As it turned out, U.S. recovered paper exports to China did drop 7 percent in 2013 relative to 2012 – and China’s overall scrap paper imports dropped 12 percent. But today, virtually all exporters agree that the decline in volume didn’t have as much to do with Green Fence as it did with an overall drop in fiber demand by China’s containerboard mills. Most traders acknowledge that the decline was mainly attributable to global economic conditions, which reduced China’s demand for containerboard.
“Green Fence may have caused a lull in exports for a couple of weeks,” says Ranjit Baxi, Managing Director of J & H Sales International Ltd., in London. “But the most important thing was the general economic weakness in 2012 and 2013. China is the global manufacturing center. When demand for their products declines, they have less need for packaging.” If the nation’s economic indicators are correct, recovered paper suppliers should brace for further reductions in Chinese demand. On September 14, 2014, Business Insider. com reported the following grim financial news: “China released a bunch of grim economic data this weekend, the worst of it being industrial production, which slowed to its lowest level since doom year 2008. It’s a flashback nobody in markets wants to experience and indicates that, unless the government wants to step in, China will be shrinking for the near term at the very least.” Continued on page 3
Inside This Issue 5
Electronics Recycling Workers Exposed to Hazardous Materials
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Importance of Ecycling: CEA Study Says More People are Recycling Electronics
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2014 Buyers’ Guide
15 2014 UK Recovered Paper Market Predicted to Pick up 17 PwC Report: Cyber Attacks to Increase by 48 Percent in 2015