The very strong demand of the first semester of 2006 has decreased. Recyclers have today a normal but not stressed work.

Recycled pallet demand on the West Coast is a contrasting story; a mid-winter citrus freeze severely depressed pallet demand in some agribusiness markets.

A small variation between demand and possible recuperation can generate very important fluctuations on costs.
Provisioning to recyclers are still very important points. The difficulty to find some new provisioning is so high that some closed loops have been created. Combination of high demand and difficulties of provisioning has generate a tension on purchase prices, that can hardly be repercuted on selling price, or on a lower margin.

On GMA pallets (US standard of 40'x48') , the price for second hand first choice tends to join the price of new pallets. Furthermore, the fact that clients are ordering in urgency , is not to facilitate the work of recyclers and permit them to better programm their activity. It is necessary for them to have the stock renewed as fast as possible.

The diminution of "white pallets" (except pooling pallets which are coloured), remains a permanent concern for the profession. During all summer 2006, recyclers have been running out-of-stock, and manufacturers of new pallets have seen their activity increase. Good quality GMA pallets have become more and more difficult to find (1).

For second choice GMA pallets, it is mainly the same and provisioning is still very difficult. Numerous users have changed their first choice for second choice to fight the augmentation of price and some of them will never come back to first choice pallet.

(1) It is the same in Europe for some standards like EUR pallets.