On April 23, China released another 124,080 metric tons of RCP import quota. So far, six lots have been released, totaling 4.45 million metric tons. The decline by -44.5% in volume from the same period of 2019 let more market analysts believe that the government is firm on implementing its set strategy to end entirely, or at least cut substantially, RCP imports from overseas by 2020.

The cut has clear impacts in China’s paper industry, especially on mid-to-large paper and board companies who consume imported RCP as fiber blend in producing premium grades of paper and board. Nine Dragons, the leading paper and board producer in the country, for example, was only allocated 1.25 million metric tons of the import quota so far, -49.6% from that of 2019. Adding Lee&man and Shanying Paper, the combined RCP import volume of the top-3 shrank -45% from the same period of 2019! For all other quota recipients, their volume was off by -44.5% at the same time.

To deal with fiber shortage as a result from looming termination of RCP imports, more paper and board companies have enhanced their efforts to sort recycled pulp from overseas. According to a recent report, Jingxing Paper, an industrial paperboard company over 1.5 million/mtpy in capacity in Zhejiang, Eastern China, entered into agreements with 4 offshore companies for an annual supply of nearly 400,000 metric tons of recycled pulp in total, in addition to the company’s construction of a 1.4 million/mtpy of recycled pulp and packaging paperboard production project in Malaysia.