Turkey

The Turkish paper industry worked at full capacity in the first half of 2022 but went into a recession in the second half owing to a fall in demand, with the particularly strong shrinkage in the brown paper sector extending to 40%. These production conditions had a massive impact on demand for recovered paper, leading to a significant increase in stocks as well as a rapid decline in sales prices.

Owing to high inflation in Turkey, costs have increased substantially. With the drop in sales prices and purchased volumes, collection companies are facing really hard times. This situation is expected to remain the same across the first quarter of 2023.

With new investments, Turkey’s annual production capacity has increased to 5 million tonnes but, owing to the above-mentioned market recession, total production was only around 3 million tonnes in 2022. Although official numbers have yet to be announced, recovered paper provided by local companies amounted to some 2.5 million tonnes while a further 1.2 million tonnes was imported.

Ongoing investments are set to increase total domestic production capacity to 8 million tonnes over the next four years.