Page 41 - Plastics News May 2024

FEATURE NEWS

Fiber exports down 17% in first quarter, plastics flat

Exports of U.S. recovered recovered fiber so far this year, bring- countries during the first three months
paper dwindled to their ing in 603,000 short tons during the of the year, almost the exact same
lowest first-quarter volume quarter, down 27% year over year. amount that was exported during the
since 2002, driven by sub- Thailand became a major destination same period in 2023.
stantial declines to major buyers in in 2023, when exports to the country More than half that material stayed
Thailand and India. Plastic shipments spiked a dramatic 120%. in North America, with 79.4 million
remained steady year over year. Other major destinations also saw sig- pounds, or 34%, going to Canada, and
The U.S. Census Bureau, part of the nificant drops: India imported 567,000 50.9 million pounds, or 22%, going to
U.S. Department of Commerce, pub- short tons during the first quarter this Mexico.
lished March export data on May 2, al- year, down 25% year over year, and The next largest portion of material
lowing for a first-quarter export analy- exports to Mexico were down 14%. went to southeast Asia and India. Ma-
sis.
In a converse trend, fiber exports to laysia imported 25.0 million pounds of
Paper exports reach 22-year first- Malaysia jumped up by 181,000 short scrap plastic, India received 20.5 mil-
quarter low tons, or 62%, but it wasn’t enough lion pounds, Vietnam brought in 12.1

U.S. companies exported 3.28 million to offset the substantial drop in ship- million pounds and Indonesia import-
short tons of recovered fiber during ments to other countries. ed 10.7 million pounds.
the first quarter of 2024, down 17% Of the first-quarter exports, OCC made Some of the exports to Southeast Asia
from 3.95 million short tons during the up 68%, mixed paper contributed could violate the Basel Convention,
same period a year earlier. 15%, high-grade deinking paper – which in 2021 began regulating the
such as sorted office paper – made up shipment of mixed plastics into Basel-
That’s the lowest volume of recovered
fiber exported during the first quarter 12%, and newsprint was just 2%. party countries. The U.S. is not a party
since 2002, and it’s down from the Scrap plastic exports flat year over to the convention, which means 191
2012 first-quarter high of 5.80 million year party countries – the vast majority of
short tons exported. U.S. exporters shipped 234.6 mil- nations – are prohibited from receiv-
ing regulated material, such as mixed
Thailand is the largest importer of U.S. lion pounds of scrap plastic to other plastic, from the U.S. There are a cou-

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