[PAPER]

The domestic market for recovered fiber continues to languish. The same cannot be said for the export market. Over the past several months, strong orders for a host of recovered fiber grades have helped boost the overall market for scrap paper.

The most recent export figures from the U.S. Commerce Department reflect this trend. For May, the most recently reported month, paper stock exports reached 1.038 million tons, pushing the figure for the first five months up 24 percent from the volume exported during the same time last year. On an annual rate, paper stock exports stand at 13.815 million tons.

Surging demand for shipments to China has driven paper stock exports. Over the past 12 months, as North American production capacity has closed, new capacity in Asia, especially China, has boosted the overall market for recovered fiber.

While shipments to China have been the biggest plus for the export market, shipments to Canada, the largest trading partner for the U.S., also posted strong improvements. For May, shipments of recovered fiber from the U.S. to Canada stood at 210,058 tons, boosting the five-month export total 13 percent from figures for the same time period last year.

On the domestic side, use of recovered fiber by paper and paperboard mills continues to slump. The overall paper industry has shown little in the sign of an upswing, and the use of recovered fiber has declined at a far sharper rate than overall paper and paperboard production.

According to the American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA), domestic mills in June consumed 2.760 million tons of recovered fiber, compared to last June’s paper stock consumption level of 2.904 million tons.

Over the past several months, as U.S. currency has declined against other world currencies, the climate for purchasing goods and services from the U.S. has improved, leading to greater interest in commodities, including recovered fiber.