Xinhua
Aug 05,2008
Some of China's paper makers plan to raise prices of newsprint, driven by rising production costs and booming demand.
Zhao Wei, general secretary of the China Paper Association, confirmed market talk to this effect to Xinhua on Monday, saying the industry would probably soon raise newsprint prices by somewhere between 300 yuan (43 U.S.dollars) and 500 yuan per tonne.
Newsprint prices have risen steadily this year. Prices were about 4,800 per tonne last year but hit 5,200 yuan per tonne in January and increased to 6,300 yuan per tonne in July.
Market analysts said paper makers face growing cost pressures and have to pass rising production costs on to consumers.
"Soaring prices of raw material, including paper pulp, electricity, water, transportation and labor have squeezed profits," said an industry insider who declined to be identified.
Meanwhile, demand for newsprint has increased rapidly in recent years, driven by a boom in the published media in China. Domestic newsprint use grew about 14 percent in 2007, said Zhao.
Growth could be even higher this year, perhaps 16 percent, because of demand for news about the Olympics, according to Zhao.
Amid this growth, the industry faces constraints that limit supply. The national crackdown on small, highly polluting paper mills is one factor.
As part of China's energy conservation and emission reduction efforts, 1,562 small pulp workshops were shuttered in the first three quarters of 2007, cutting national pulp production 15 percent.
China imported 8.47 million tonnes of paper pulp last year, up 6.5 percent, valued at 5.55 billion U.S. dollars, up 26.3 percent.
The country is now the world's second-largest paper consumer after the United States.
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