February Data Released

Paper/Board

Paper/board figures reported for this month show a slight decrease of 28,088 tonnes. This is a marked decrease when we compare tonnage from this time last year where over 500,000 tonnes had already been reported in 2021 compared to the 376,000 tonnes reported in 2022 thus far.

With all monthly data in 2021 reporting over 200,000 tonnes in any month this is a significant fall for the material grade with 174,164 tonnes. This may be predominantly due to a clerical error whereby India is currently unable to buy paper from Europe.

Plastic

Plastic tonnages show a marked increase in February figures compared to January, a needed boost for the material without confirmation on carryover for the year. With a 24,842 tonne increase to bring the total tonnes for the material to 117,758, the figure looks to be broadly in line with 2021 reports.

Glass

Both Glass Other and Glass Remelt have seen tonnages increase in February compared to January figures, with 41,575 tonnes and 93,691 tonnes reported respectively. With Glass being a slightly more volatile material in 2021 these figures put us ahead when we compare with February figures last year.

Wood and Aluminium

Wood seems to be on a very similar trend to 2021, with the tonnage reported for February 5-fold from the January 2022 figure. With 31,553 tonnes reported we continue with Wood being very securely in place to meet estimated targets.

Aluminium tonnage reported in the first two months of 2022 indicate a similar trend to 2021. Without carryover confirmed we cannot assess how this is performing relative to estimated targets.

Steel

Reported figures for steel look in line with the usual trend of a slow start in the new year. With a marked drop for February to only 6,808 the current economic conditions in the UK, with high energy prices and high transportation costs may be impacting production and viability of exports.

Martin Trigg-Knight, Head of Compliance at Clarity Environmental, stated:

“As usual for the start of the year, the initial data released is always difficult to interpret fully without the final quarter of the previous year released.

With this months data released we will be closely looking at Steel and the reported tonnages in the coming months, assessing the potential impact of the current economic conditions on the market.”