BIR Convention: India is ramping up recovered paper requirements

At the same time China appears to be cutting off acceptance of recycled pulp, buyers in India are poised to boost their demand for recovered paper, according to presenters and panelists at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Paper Division meeting held in late October in Bangkok.

A decision by the Chinese government to implement new requirements on the import of dry pulp is causing major challenges for processors in Thailand, who have been importing recovered paper to make dry pulp for the Chinese market.

Jun Park of the Singapore office of the Switzerland-based VIPA Group said the new rules announced and quickly put into effect in October created a lot of uncertainties in the market, resulting in the market price to crash.

Park says the government has tied the ban to blocking residual materials and that dry pulp must now meet a 0.5 percent impurity standard. Implementation of the new rules has led to inspections on all dry pulp loads, causing delays at Chinese ports.

“People believe there are about 3,000 to 4,000 containers stuck in ports in China,” Park said.

The trader says China imports around as much as 5 million metric tons of dry pulp per year, with Thailand being a major supplier.

However, the regulation does not apply to wet pulp.

“They have no issues for [wet pulp] to be imported to China, although they do go through 100 percent inspection as well," Park said.

Because of the rule’s effects in Malaysia and Thailand, the recovered paper market is expected to be volatile for the next two to three months, according to panelists.

In addition to Malaysia and Thailand, India is a leading export destination for recovered paper from the United States and Europe, and its market could be more predictable.

At the meeting, Ranjit Baxi of London-based J&H Sales International said India is the fastest growing paper market with a compound annual growth rate of production there of more than 7.5 percent.

While the government is investing to upgrade domestic collection networks that supply is not expected to kick in for another five to seven years, meaning imports will remain the primary feedstock in the interim, according to Baxi.

Baxi said 60 percent of the recovered paper consumed by Indian mills is imported.

“The basic rate of customs duty on imported paper is 2.5 percent in India, so the Indian [paper] industry is constantly lobbying to the government to bring the import duty down to zero percent, because of its critical dependence on [recovered paper] imports," he said.

Brian Reese of Connecticut-based Canusa Hershman Recycling said U.S. mills are consuming higher volumes of recovered paper and, in some cases, have invested to use the mixed paper grade.

“In short, less of the old corrugated containers (OCC) grade is being generated overall and more of what’s produced stays in the U.S.,” he said. “Many suppliers find it easier to sell to domestic mills rather than deal with container load and bookings and inspections."

Simone Scaramuzzi, sales and purchasing director at Italy-based LCI, said mills Europe have increased production capacity, reducing the availability of recovered paper for the export market.

He said tighter controls on EU secondary materials exports and increased documentation requirements, as well as fluctuating freight rates, also were limiting exports, as suppliers in Europe as in the U.S. have been favoring the domestic market to avoid those issues.

Scaramuzzi said this year had seen a moderate price rebound, driven by stronger demand from regional mills for OCC and sorted office paper.

BIR Paper Division President Francisco Donoso of Dolaf Servicios Verdes S.L. offered a presentation on the Global Auction for Recovered Paper for Recycling (GARP), a new platform set to launch by the end of this year.

GARP will host weekly 30-minute auctions for recovered paper and board and will feature live pricing, anonymous identities on a trading platform designed to connect suppliers, customers and brokers from around the world.

The BIR October 2025 World Recycling Convention & Exhibition was at the Centara Grand Convention Centre at Centralworld in Bangkok from Oct. 26-28.