Position of Paper industry in India

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CK PAPER MART

• 110/2, Gali No. 13, 2ndGodown, Alipur, Delhi
  110036
• Email Id ckpapermart_at_gmail.com
• Phone Tarun Goel 9871707190
• Pawan Goel 9818083839
• www.ckpapermart.com

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Position of Paper Pulp Industry in India

• Indian economy started promoting for paper less
  economy since Mr. Narender Modi took reign of PM.
  The entire system was processed towards
  digitalisation as the government also started
  sending notices and challans over email Id or at
  different digital platforms instead of sending
  paper document via speed posts. In fact, people
  have also shifted their accounting and book
  keeping process on different software systems
  such as Tally Prime, Tally ERP, Busy etc.
  Resulting the fact, that the demand of paper
  became less in the market, due to which the paper
  mills of India started losing businesses.

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• According to CK PAPER MART, the twisting fact is
  that, the demand of prime Kraft paper has been
  decreased as now the people are no more using
  paper for writing purposes but the demand of
  brown kraft paper has been increased into
  packaging business. There are other types of
  paper such as White bleach kraft paper, SBS etc.
  are also one of the prominent part of packaging
  industry. The kraft paper is demanded for
  manufacturing of carry bags, corrugated boxes,
  honeycomb manufacturing for packaging etc. India
  is having two different segment of packaging
  papers, firstly, India is having more than 900
  paper mills, which are into manufacturing of
  kraft paper or packaging paper. Secondly, a large
  segment of packaging kraft paper is also imported
  from USA and Europe, which is better in strength
  and quality as compared to Indian kraft. During
  last two years, i.e., 2021 and 2022, the export
  of kraft paper was too high due to which hundreds
  of new paper mills were started but now, most of
  them are hit by global recession and are almost
  at the urge of shut down. The paper mill owners
  of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are agreeing
  that, due to low demand, global recession and
  rising inflation level, they have to take harsh
  decision of closure of the production processes
  and the during the first quarter of 2023, more
  than 20 mills have been completely shut down
  affecting the livelihood of more than 26000
  people in India.

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• The managing director of prominent paper mill
  stated that they have closed down the production
  related activity during April and May 2023
  because of lower demand. Other than paper mills
  of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, paper mills of
  Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan were also closed
  down as the global crisis and steep inflation
  rate impacted the consumption process of kraft
  paper. The President of The Indian Recovered
  Paper Traders Association (IRPTA) mentioned that
  the entire situation of mill shut down arose
  because the kraft mills are making huge losses as
  they were working only on gap of INR 8 to INR 9
  per kg against waste paper and finish paper. In
  simple terms, the prime paper produced by Indian
  mill manufacturers were selling just say the
  price of Rs. 15, which is of good quality then
  the stocklot paper imported from overseas have
  been sold at the price of Rs. 7, despite the fact
  that quality of stocklot paper is equivalent to
  waste paper.
• At the time duration of closure of the Kraft
  paper mill, the waste of Kraft paper was actually
  being sold at INR 17000 per metric tonnes which
  was of 18 BF and 100 GSM whereas the prime Kraft
  Paper was being sold at INR 25000 per metric
  tonnes which was also of 18 BF and 100 GSM and
  this nominal gap was not enough to match with
  growing losses. The prominent paper mill from
  Uttarakhand mentioned that the demand of kraft
  paper is quite short throughout the globe whereas
  the inflation rate is also higher. Earlier, India
  was exporting lot of packaging products such as
  corrugated boxes and Paper Carry Bags. But now,
  due to low overseas demand, the corrugated box
  manufacturers were also not operating at full
  capacities. Although, the mill owners are hopeful
  that the global market might pick up within next
  two quarters as the shutdown of mills would
  correct the prices of kraft paper.

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• Kraft paper is basically a kind of recycled paper
  and it is no longer remained monopoly of Indian
  and Chinese mills because the paper mills of
  developed countries have also installed the
  recycling plants and they are also offering good
  quality kraft paper at the prices lower of Indian
  mills due to which the Indian paper mills are not
  been able to compete with international paper
  mills. The paper mills of Russia and Malaysia are
  offering the kraft paper at prices lower than 20
  as compared to the prices offered by Indian paper
  mills. The fact cannot be denied that, during
  year 2022 the paper import was 2802.38 USD
  Million and same was just 742.45 USD Million in
  year 2021, indicating that the people of India
  themselves are also preferring to use imported
  kraft paper instead of Indian kraft because of
  prices and quality. In last two years, the
  production capacity of kraft paper has been
  expanded by 40 in proportion of the demand
  whereas the actual expansion required was just
  between 18 to 20. In order to match with
  demanded capacity, the paper mill association
  have been agreed to shut down their production
  process for five days every month in order to
  equalise demand and supply.
• In 2023, the paper mills of India have suffered
  huge losses, due to which the paper mill
  association of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
  Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have formed cartel
  and have decided to follow the business pattern
  of Paper mills of Foreign countries. The paper
  mills operating in northern areas are also
  planning to shut down the operating for five days
  in month as like paper mills of South and Western
  India.
• There are different types of Kraft paper
  manufactured by Paper Mills, such as Virgin
  Kraft, Bleach Kraft, Poly Craft, Absorbent Kraft
  Paper, etc. and these kraft paper are used for
  different purposes. The paper mill from Punjab
  has also been shut down in order to manage their
  existing stock as the paper mill was going to
  through difficult time. The corrugated box
  manufacturers have received 20 lesser orders as
  compared to previous year. Although, the chances
  of demand could be possible from Indian market as
  the demand of corrugated boxes from Himachal
  Pradesh rises during May and June because of
  seasonal aspect as the boxes for Apple packaging
  were in high demand. But the existing corrugated
  box manufacturers were not prepared for this and
  could not determine the size of boxes and were
  not been able to fulfil the orders.

6

• While the export of Kraft paper from India has
  been concerned then the packaging paper are also
  being exported as during 2020, the floating
  medium and test liner export was approximately 2
  lakh tones each month and it remained continued
  till several months. Although, the export
  processes started declining in 2023 because of
  certain issues such as bad odour from Indian
  kraft, improper logistics, run ability and sub
  standard quality. It is recommending to kraft
  manufacturing mills, that, if these issues can be
  curbed then it will act as huge opportunity for
  packaging industry. India was exporting kraft
  paper into Far East, Middle East, Latin America
  and African countries. The export could have been
  possible in 2020 and 2021 because of compulsion
  and necessities, not because of choice.