Page 57 - Plastics News Issue June 2025
P. 57
BUSINESS NEWS
In February, when tariff talk started getting se- into the EU, Matt Tudball, UK-based senior editor
rious, sales volumes dropped by nearly three- of recycling at commodity intelligence firm ICIS,
quarters, said the North American seller, but told Plastics Recycling Update. And for both vir-
when the tariffs didn’t go into effect, buyers re- gin and recycled PET, the Asia-to-Europe trade
turned. “That was the first time everybody was a route is well established.
little bit wary, and didn’t react as fast,” the seller
said, and this pattern repeated in April. But for recycled PE and PP, “there’s a lot more
hesitation on bringing Asian material in, partly
Even if recycled plastics are exempt from tariffs, because of lead times, but partly because those
“the problem is really the uncertainty. Nobody trade routes are being established in a very
can make a decision; everybody just kind of lives different world than it was 10 to 20 years ago,
day by day. Our customers can’t plan anymore, where they’re worried about the optics of bring-
so it’s much more difficult for them to commit ing material long distance,” Mark Victory, UK-
and to send out purchase orders and to get the based senior editor of recycling at ICIS, said.
commitment long term,” the North American
seller said, adding that no one is willing to ex- Overall, the impact to European recycled plas-
pose themselves to any more risk than is neces- tics pricing is expected to be secondary, Victory
sary. and Tudball both said. For example, the euro has
strengthened against the dollar, making Asian
In its May North America market update, global products priced in U.S. dollars cheaper.
shipping giant Maersk noted that two ways to
manage risk were to ship in “Less than Container Recycled polyolefins do not see significant flows
Loads,” or LCL, to avoid overstocking that could in or out of Europe, Victory said, but these mar-
incur high fees, and to avoid using Delivered kets could see a secondary impact from a reduc-
Duty Paid, or DDP, shipping terms. tion of U.S.-origin virgin PE coming into Europe.
During gaps in tariffs, foreign sellers can move “This actually could potentially have a positive
volumes into U.S. warehouses, filling them up impact for recycling, because if it pushes the
with “whatever we think we can sell.” Beyond virgin price up higher, it could relieve some of
that, companies don’t have much of a strategy, those margin strains on some of the non-pack-
the seller said. Nevertheless, with the continuing aging applications that compete directly, but
U.S. uncertainty, the seller said they were look- also it could make people make that transition
ing more at Latin America, as well as Europe, to to recycling quicker and earlier.”
help diversify the buying roster.
In addition to the recently enacted Packaging
“It’s kind of sad, because, I mean, there’s good and Packaging Waste Reduction legislation,
relationships, there’s good ties between both other regulations, such as EU 2022/1616, apply
countries, and you see everybody kind of pulling to food-contact applications, Tudball said. The
back.” result is that there’s a lot of focus on traceability
of recycled material, “so it remains to be seen if
Asia courts European buyers these cheap imports end up really taken up by
European buyers, or if they’re still a little bit cau-
The ongoing U.S. uncertainty has opened the tious.”
window for recycled resin imports to increase
June 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 57
