Rising prices of coal and other raw material seem to have cast a dark cloud over several businesses cutting across the categories. From steel manufacturers to packaging units and from cement manufacturers to publishers, almost all are facing hardship. The current situation is also pushing up prices of other commodities and eventually affecting the common man. Soaring prices of paper is one such example that has seen record hike in the range of 25 per cent to 90 per cent in a span of just one year. Writing and printing paper price has jumped from Rs 39,000-46,000 per Metric Tonne (MT) (plus 12% GST) in March 2021 to Rs 75,000 per MT (plus 12% GST) in March 2022. Corresponding hike in prices of other categories of paper including coated paper, craft paper and newsprint was also seen over the same period. Prices of all the categories of paper are trading at all time highs.

 

 

 

Past President of the Federation of Paper Traders’ Association of India Mahesh Khandelwal told The Hitavada that the rising paper prices have severely affected the paper industry and even others. “We have been witnessing a sharp rise for the past few months which has affected everyone who is consuming paper and paper products,” he said. Khandelwal said the current levels of paper prices are because of the tremendous hike in coal price which has recently touched its all time high. “Coal is important raw material used in paper mill. Besides, the high prices of the petrochemicals and other commodities are taking up the price of paper,” he said.

 

“Packaging units, printing units, newspaper industry, publishers, notebook manufactures and others are facing the consequences of the price rise,” he said. Ashish Khandelwal, President of the Nagpur Paper Traders’ Association, said, “There are various issues because of which all the major paper manufacturing units in the country are operating below their capacity. On the other hand, demand for paper has gone up significantly as soon as the Government started easing restrictions,” he said. During the corona phase, there were very few takers for the writing and printing paper as people were working from their homes and schools were closed. And when the authorities started lifting restrictions, demand for writing and printing paper started going up dramatically. In the meanwhile, raw material shortage brought down paper production. Highlighting another point, Harshit Bhansali, Secretary of the Nagpur Paper Traders’ Association, said non-availability of the paper waste is also impacting the pricing. “During the corona phase, proper collection of paper waste could not happen and today it is in short supply. Paper waste is used to manufacture recycled paper,” he added.