TOKYO: Cardboard scraps are fetching the highest export price ever recorded in Japan amid soaring Chinese demand for the material, coupled with the cheaper yen.
The average bid price for March shipments jumped 8% from the previous month to 26.4 yen (24 cents) per kilogram, a Tokyo-based papermaking industry group said. In dollar-denominated terms, one ton of used cardboard is valued at $264, a price not seen since March 2008.
China’s e-commerce boom is driving demand for cardboard paper used in packaging. The market prices for base paper also are rising, and Chinese manufacturers of that product are purchasing used paper at marked-up prices, a waste paper merchant said.
January exports of used cardboard to China climbed 10% from a year earlier, trade data shows.
Japanese demand for cardboard paper also is rising, but manufacturers are not raising prices due to an inventory glut. The cost of procuring used cardboard is currently rising along with the export price. “It’s now becoming harder to turn a profit,” a cardboard paper manufacturer said.
The price for old magazines grew 8% to 26.2 yen per kilogram, or $257 a ton. Old newspapers are now 10% more expensive at 25.3 yen a kilo and $250 a ton.
