Indian Paper Industry Likely To Touch 25-Mt By 2020: ASSOCHAM

The Indian paper industry, the fastest growing in the world, is poised to grow at the rate of 10.6% per annum to touch a size of 25-mt by 2019-20, from 20.37-mt in 2017-18, according to a paper by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

There are approximately 600 paper mills in India, of which 12 are major players. They produce a variety of papers including: printing & writing paper (creame wove, maplitho, copier, bond, etc.); packaging paper (kraft, boards, poster); coated (art paper/board, chromo paper/board); and some speciality papers.

According to the report, the wood-based paper industry here will benefit from a revision of the forest policy allowing them to raise plantations, on degraded forestland. Other measures that will benefit the industry include: reduction in import duty on waste paper; and duty-free imports of new & second-hand machinery/equipment for technology upgradation.

The prime grades of paper imported into the country (from USA, Europe, Dubai and Singapore, amongst others) include label stock, wet strength papers, tea bag tissue, soft tissue, filter paper, insulation Kraft, decorative laminates, overlay tissue, thermal papers, digital papers, coated papers/boards and some specialities.

Indian producers also export several grades of papers, mainly to the Middle East, South Eastern countries, Eastern Europe and USA: A4 copier paper, wood-free (mostly from bamboo and agro wastes), coated duplex (mostly recycled fibre) and converted products like stationery items, calendars, books, magazines, children’s playbooks and comics.

High cost centre

The high cost of production of paper here in India is a problem for the industry and is caused by a number of factors:

>Inadequate availability and high cost of raw materials;

>High power costs;

>Concentration of mills in one particular area;

>Non-availability of good-quality fibre;

>Uneconomical plant size;

>Technological obsolescence; and

>Environmental challenges.

>Lowering energy costs

Lowering energy costs

Energy, being the significant portion of production cost, is getting less attention, the report added. But integration of electrical systems, including intelligent motor control centres with Distributed Control Systems (DCS), will help in monitoring overall energy consumption. Another area is integration of raw material flow information on real-time basis and utilising the same to control quality.

“Enterprise solutions, such as enterprise resource planning systems, manufacturing execution systems or collaborative production management systems, and supply chain management systems have not received adequate attention from the management. Also there exists a lack of coordination between the automation department and IT within the mill. As a result, the pulp and paper industry in India lags behind its Asian and global counterparts,” the report added.

According to the report, paper mills in India have tremendous opportunity to improve their profit margin by increasing investments in automation systems and enterprise solutions, and integrating them to achieve collaborative production management. “With the country’s economy growing robustly, paper consumption in India is bound to expand, and the existing gap is a good indicator of the industry’s growth potential.”