BIR Report

Ferrous Demand is Likely to Return
Speakers at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Ferrous Division meeting in Munich in October said ferrous demand would likely return in the coming year.

Tom Bird of Van Dalen Recycling in the U.K. and president of the European Ferrous Recovery and Recycling Federation (EFR) said compared with the crisis of 2008, "our customers are more robust, more consolidated and far more likely to continue to perform [even] in a falling marketplace."

In his report on Russia and the Ukraine, Andrey Moiseenko of Ukrmet Ltd. predicted that the latter of these two countries would "definitely" become an importer of scrap next year (principally from Russia and Kazakhstan), not least because of the development of domestic electric arc furnace production capacity.

Hisatoshi Kojo of Metz Corp. in Japan confirmed that scrap prices had fallen "dramatically" in most regions of Japan during a short time and that the flow of material to export yards "has also started slowing down."

Scrap will remain "structurally scarce," and so price levels will stay strong but with some regional volatility, according to guest speaker Karl-Ulrich Köhler, managing director and CEO of Tata Steel Europe.

Blake Kelley of Sims Metal Management, New York City, said iron ore and steel prices had been "drifting lower" but steel production "continues at high rates."

As for raw materials, steelmakers "will need to restock unless consumption truly decreases," Kelley contended. "The longer they delay, the more urgent their need."

The 2011 BIR Autumn Round-Table Sessions were Oct. 23-25 in Munich.

Fiber Quality Concerns are in the Mix
Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Paper Division President Ranjit Baxi of U.K.-based J&H Sales International has expressed concern that, for quality reasons, European recovered fiber exports to China are coming under increasing pressure from material supplied by other regions of the world. If China were to cut back on its imports, Europe was likely to be "the first to suffer," Baxi told attendees of the BIR Paper Division meeting in Munich in October.

Third-quarter GDP growth in China was the slowest in two years, Baxi also noted, calling it proof that even the world's main driver of demand for recovered fiber has not been immune to the latest economic crisis.

The importance of establishing and following strict quality procedures was underlined by guest speaker Herman van der Miej, commercial sales director at Viridor UK, which handles some 1.7 million metric tons of recyclables annually. There was an over-arching need, he contended, to monitor incoming supplies and to ensure outgoing product met the standards set by customers.

Francisco Donoso of Reciclajes Dolaf SL addressed controversial legislation in Spain that threatens exports of recovered paper and paperboard beyond the EU, despite the fact that the region ran up a surplus of 8 million metric tons last year. Fewer business opportunities would lead to lower prices and to a drop in financial resources for collection, he contended.

Vice President of the Japan Recovered Paper Association Nobutaka Okubo revealed that China accounted for 79.8 percent of all Japanese recovered paper exports last year, or roughly 3.5 million metric tons. Of the 4.4 million metric tons exported by Japan to all destinations, old corrugated containers made up 50.6 percent and news/old magazines a further 34.3 percent by grade, he said.

The 2011 BIR Autumn Round-Table Sessions were Oct. 23-25 in Munich.