Forest products industry monitor RISI forecasts recovered paper demand to grow at 2.5 per cent year for the next 15 years, as expanding capacities of recycled fibre-based paper and board re-accelerate demand growth.

It says world recovered paper consumption growth was down from four per cent in the last ten years to 1.7 per cent per year in 2013. "Over the next five years, however, global recovered paper demand is forecasted to re-accelerate alongside recovering paper and board markets," RISI's Outlook for Global Recovered Paper Markets says.

Developing regions will account for about 90 per cent of this demand and seek recovered paper from developed regions, which are major suppliers of recovered paper.

"We are expecting to see growth in global recovered paper demand at an average rate of 2.5 per cent per year, reaching 346 million tonnes by 2029," lead study author and senior recovered paper economist Hannah Zhao (right) says.

"Meanwhile, world paper and board output will expand by only 1.8 per cent per year over the same period. Overall, international trade will remain a key player in the global recovered paper markets even though we're expecting trade volumes and patterns to change."

Zhao says China is the largest consumer and importer of recovered paper, but growth has slowed over the last few years and the nation's foothold in the market is expected to weaken in terms of import demand. "However, key regions could counterbalance market changes with increased imports and demand from other regions over the forecast period," she says.

The study analyses 120 countries, identifying investment and trading opportunities that apply to the recovered paper business as well as recycled fibre based paper and board products. Among companies it looks at are Visy Recycling, Ohmoto Shiryo, Miyazaki, Siam Kraft Recycling, Zhongnan (Tianjin) Renewable Resource Company, Nine Dragons Paper Industries, Lee & Man Paper, JaAn Group, Dongguan Jianhui, DS Smith Recycling, Veolia Propreté, Smurfit Kappa Recycling, SITA, SAICA Natur, Remondis, Paprec Recyclage, WEKO Wertstoffkontor, MAD - Münchener Akten + Daten Vernichtung, America Chung Nam, and Denison/Ralison.

More information from www.risi.com/recoveredpaper

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