Paper - News and Analysis

Larger players may shift to use waste paper for raw material

Indian paper industry is struggling to get raw materials at effective price as there is no government policy to favour paper industry for forestation and also at importing pulp. Though quality of final product remained a concern till few years had been sorted out with advanced technology. Among the larger mills, TN Newsprint and Century Pulp and Paper already have recycled fibre. Internationally, recycled paper forms 30% of the component as raw materials.

Paper Industry to face some tough year

Indian Paper industry is to face a mismatch in demand-supply as large and small players are adding capacities. Around 4 lakh tonnes of capacity is being added this year where the demand may not be there, though the industry is growing at 5-6%. Importers are also wary in such a situation as larger players are lobbying for safeguard duty. Looking at export opportunities as prices have corrected largely in Europe and US. Locally, the prices have dropped considerably from Rs.50,000 /tonne to Rs.38000 /tonne where large mills could barely break even.

Paper Industry invests in contract farming

Paper industry, which faces difficulty in getting wood pulp has started to induce farmers to take contract farming. Now every farmer, who plants eucalyputus , acacia or sabaul will get Rs.15000 per acre. The agreements are done to benefit the farmers, either they get market price for wood pulp or as per the contract price or whichever is higher. The industry also provides assistance in lending or coax banks to lend, as most plantations take 4 years to yield. Expected demand for paper is to go up from 8.0 million tonnes to 11.5 million tonnes by 2010.

{backbutton}

ABC Paper to expand its paper unit at Hoshiarpur

ABC Paper to expand its paper unit at Hoshiarpur district in Punjab with an investment of Rs. 1730 million.  The project involves setting up of writing and printing grade of paper unit (150 TPD to 450 TPD) including installation of chemical recovery plant (230 TDS/day), multi fuel power boiler (60 TPH), new 10 MW turbine, new wood pulp stream of 60 TPD, replacement of batch digester with new continuous digester (165 TPD breached pulp) for agro industry residue and high consistency pulper for waste paper processing of 20 cu.m. capacity.