The waiting game.

The former clamoring demand from overseas markets has quieted down considerably, leaving scrap fiber markets relatively flat this month.

Recyclers and mill buyers who were waiting to see what China would do are still waiting, sources say. Export demand hasn't been particularly influential throughout the last couple of weeks, which has kept the markets for paper's heavy-hitters--old corrugated containers (OCC) and old newspapers (ONP)--flat.

Recyclers and buyers aren't necessarily concerned about the recent slack. "These are numbers you can conduct business at," says one Midwestern recycler.

While many sources remain calm about OCC and ONP, others express some frayed nerves over the high grades.

"We're on a slippery slope," one source says in regard to sorted office paper (SOP), which has been soft for months. Generation continues to soar--supplied by the secure document destruction industry, but prices have been lagging far behind other grades.

One source reports that quality issues in paper coming from document destruction firms have some mills re-evaluating the grade. Some are considering whether they should be paying SOP prices for scrap fiber generated from secure document destruction firms or if the feedstock should be considered its own grade, one source says.

One recycler says the price of office paper has dipped below that of mixed paper and that mills are basically able to name their own price.

Out West, the situation is pretty much the same, only California sources report a little more export activity. One California recycler reports COO has seen a tiny boost in price, while ONP has been slightly softer.

Most sources report generation of COO and ONP is about par for this time of year and that, with the exception of office paper, material seems to be moving well with few instances of inventories piling up.

One source says California recyclers are anxious and more than a little wary over the launch of extended hours at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, set to take effect in July.

According to local media reports, the introduction of the Pier Pass program is designed to encourage shippers to move their cargo away from peak hours as a way to ease congestion at the piers. Port operators will be charging shipping fees starting at $20 per 20-foot container during peak hour traffic--3 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In other paper-related news, the international market was a topic of interest at the recent BIR Spring Convention, held in late May.

Among market reports from around the world, Divisional Vice President Merja Helander of Paperinkerays Oy in Finland confirmed that a disagreement over holidays had led to an industrial dispute involving the Finnish Paper Workers' Union and the forest industry. This was of "deep concern" to collectors because mills were not accepting any further supplies.

David Symmers of IWPPA (Independent Waste Paper Processors Association) in the U.K. reported that his country had achieved record recovered paper exports of 2.6 million metric tons last year, including more than 720,000 metric tons shipped to China. This performance was assigned in part to the increased political pressure to recycle without a parallel upturn in domestic mill capacity.

A more detailed summary of the BIR Spring Conference is available starting on p. 56.

(Additional news about paper recycling markets, including breaking news and pricing, is available online at www.RecyclingToday.com.)

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