"blamed the "Amazon effect""

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"A more than 10-fold rise in the price of cardboard since the start of the pandemic is raising concern among small UK companies that they will be unable to source boxes to send out products and parts to customers.

Demand from Amazon and other online sellers, along with border disruption and stockpiling caused by Brexit, has led to a national cardboard shortage.

"You cannot get hold of new cardboard," said Mandy Ridyard, finance director at aerospace component manufacturer Produmax. "We are holding on to the boxes we have."

Quack Snacks, which sells food pellets for wildfowl, first experienced shortages in December. "Where suppliers had always previously offered a next-day service, some box sizes were being listed with mid-January dispatch dates," said founder Andrew Hemmings.

Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, which represents cardboard-makers, blamed the "Amazon effect".

"There is a monumental increase in demand caused by the surge in online deliveries during the pandemic," he said. "It's a global shortage - not just the UK or EU - given huge demand from China. People are going around stealing cardboard."

Figures from letsrecycle.com, the industry database, reveal prices of old cardboard used to make new boxes rose from as low as £10 a tonne in January last year to up to £118 a tonne last month. But they have risen further since then, according to Ellin, reaching £140-£150 a tonne this month."

Trecho retirado de "Amazon effect sends cardboard prices soaring" publicado no FT do passado dia 15 de Março.