Since the announcement of China’s import ban for the recovered paper, it has become more and more common for Chinese paper mills to import recycled pulp instead.
Recycled pulp demand in the USA has been growing in recent years. When China announced that it would stop importing recovered paper from abroad, Chinese paper mills started importing this material as an alternative – mainly from the US, where exports have increased significantly as a result. The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) told that US recycled pulp exports had been steady at 40,000-50,000 t until 2018 and started rising thereafter.
While, according to AF&PA statistics, the USA exported only 44,000 t of recycled in pulp in 2018, the figure jumped to 267,000 t in 2019 and has increased again in 2020 to 328,000 t. The majority of this was shipped to China. A total of 289,000 t were exported to the People’s Republic in 2020, an increase of 34 percent compared to 2019. In 2018, recycled pulp shipments to China stood at only 15,000 t, says AF&PA.
source:euwid
