Domestic mills experience overloads of recovered paper

More tons of recovered paper are being sold stateside than to export markets. So, this fall, there’s an influx of material inventories at some domestic paper mills. Recycling Today looks at the current state their operations.

Mid America Paper Recycling has been able to get through the COVID-19 pandemic relatively unscathed and has successfully been able to grow our business. Our collective “find a way” mentality allows us to get things done in all matters of recycling and figure out what we can do to make our clients feel great.

It’s no easy task, however, as many U.S. paper mills are meeting the global need for containerboard and packaging. Mills including Sonoco, Graphic Packaging International and International Paper are reporting strong seasonal demand for corrugated packaging for the rest of this year. With slow demand for exported recovered paper this month, especially from Southeast Asia, the buying period has resulted in more material recovery facility (MRF) operators, paper packers and traders of recovered paper trying to sell their tons to domestic customers rather than overseas buyers.

“Mills are pretty well-saturated,” says one MRF operator based in the Midwest. “Usually, [at] this time of year, they ask for extra tons to get through Thanksgiving, but nobody is asking for that.”

Some mills are looking for alternative supply sources to ONP, such as mixed paper or old magazines. And transportation costs continue to rise because of higher gas prices. While others say they see trucking opening somewhat, though it’s still challenging.

“It’s very challenging to get containers, bookings and trucking,” says one mill buyer overseas. “We might have good bookings, but then sometimes you can’t get the truckers because truckers are in high demand.”

Securing trucking continues to be problematic, the buyer adds, and he suspects domestic paper mills may start relying on rail rather than trucking where possible. “If you have rail and can get things on rail, that could be king. That’s just my opinion, but I think we’ll see more dependence on rail to rely on trucks less,” he says.

For more information, read Recycling Today’s full article at: https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/recovered-paper-inventories-filling-domestic-mills-november-2021/