As
domestic pulp wood prices soar, large paper mills are resorting to imports to
meet raw material requirement.
According
to industry representatives, ITC, West Coast Paper, JK Paper and BILT have
imported wood chips and logs from various sources, this could be start of a
trend if the initial efforts are found to be viable.
The
growing competition for pulp wood in the domestic market has nearly doubled
prices to over Rs 5,000 a tonne in the last five years, according to industry
sources. Between 2008 and 2010 mills added over 16 lakh tonnes a year of
printing and writing paper production capacity, a one-third jump over the
production capacity previously.
