The quarter two reprocessing data has been released by the Environment Agency, revealing the state of the PRN market halfway through the year. Yet again, the grades of interest are plastic, glass and steel. Chris Taylor, PRN trader for Clarity, said of this latest data.
“Despite the belief that China’s Green Fence policy was having a massive impact on the UK plastic export industry, the data has in fact revealed an improvement on the figures from last quarter.
“Export is reporting almost exactly the same return as quarter one at around 92,000T, which leads us to wonder whether export to China is actually as bad as previously thought. Or have new export routes been created? A high PRN price can often cover the costs of setting up new export routes, as we witnessed with glass last year. There is talk that Indonesia has been ramping up their imports from the UK. UK Reprocessing has also given the plastic market a shot in the arm by increasing their efforts by around 11,000T this quarter.
“All in all, plastic is much closer to its targets than was feared, at 49 per cent for 2013. As we approach quarter three, which has historically been strong for plastic, the signs currently point to a tight finish as opposed to the large short-supply predicted throughout the last quarter. As a result, prices are softening.
“Glass seems to be in a state of limbo. Glass re- melt has improved by as much as 25,000T on its quarter one performance and aggregate has improved dramatically compared to quarter one by 45,000T. But these improvements still leave both glass grades behind target, and so we expect prices to remain strong moving forward.
“The price of steel has remained strong throughout quarter two, but the data reveals that it is very much over-supplied, currently by a massive 50,000T, and as a result the prices are softening.”
If you would like to find out more about our PRN trading service, or to discuss packaging compliance for your business, contact our team on 0845 129 7177.
