The waste plastics trade remains difficult. Again in May, waste management companies, merchants, recyclers and converters in Germany frequently reported that they had had orders cancelled at short notice and that there were more quality complaints. Increasingly often there were reports that recyclers and converters had reduced the number of shifts they were running or had introduced short-time work.
In light of the recession in Germany, higher interest rates and falling prices for primary plastics, demand for regrind and regranulate was said to be far below normal. "It is not a good idea to be a plastics recycler at the moment," said one business owner, summing up the difficult market situation.
In some cases, sales in May were about 40 per cent lower than they had been in January. Customers from the automotive sector had all cut back on production, and demand from the construction industry had also "fallen off a cliff". Demand was weak for almost all resin types and for nearly all applications, putting prices for plastic scrap and regrind unter pressure.
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