Special Correspondent :
The newspaper industry owners’ have to pay more in the days to come as the prices of newsprint is rising sharply.
About Tk 20,000 per tonne of newsprint has been increased in phases and some newsprint industry owner’s hinted that price of newsprint will likely rise further.
Print publishers have been increasing newsprint prices to deal with.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, newsprint cost has shot up by 20 pc in the past three months and is expected to shoot up further by at least another 10 pc in the recent months.
The printing industry that saw its business in the rock bottom as demand fell, is hoping for a strong revival as the economy is recovering strongly.
Bangladesh has more than 100 paper mills with a combined annual production capacity of more than 15 lakh tonnes of paper and paper products.
But less than half of the capacity is used as a major portion of the annual domestic requirement of around 11 lakh tonnes is met with imported paper and packaging materials.
Of the mills, seven major companies — Akij Group, Amber Group, Bashundhara Group, Meghna Group, Partex Group, Creative Paper Mills, and Papertech Industries — manufacture quality papers.
But the recent rise in paper price caused by the hike in paper pulp, the raw material, and the supply disruption caused by the Russian-Ukraine war, means parents, who are already under pressure for the increasing inflation, will find it difficult to afford the key learning ingredient for their children, while the
hope for a swift recovery for the printing industry may be dashed.
In the last three and a half months, the price of papers rose by a minimum of 31 per cent in Bangladesh.
The price shot to Tk 90,000 per tonne in the first half of March, up from Tk 70,000 in December, according to millers and traders.
According to chairman of the Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh (PIAB) Shahid Serneabat, “The printing industry is facing trouble as millers can’t supply the paper on time on the excuse of raw material shortage.”
“With much difficulty, we were able to print school books and deliver them. But now, students need exercise books as schools and colleges are reopening,” he added.
Some millers had received advance payment to supply printing and writing paper, he said adding that three to four months have passed, but millers are yet to supply the paper.
Serneabat also alleged that a number of businessmen import papers using the bonded warehouse facility to use them in export-oriented products. Instead, they sell them in the local market at a profit of 20 per cent at the expense of the local printing industry.
“This is the major reason for the volatility in the paper market.”
MM Nurun Nabi, Executive Director of Partex Paper Mills Ltd, said the prices of pulp had declined.
Bangladesh mainly imports pulp from Indonesia, Brazil and Canada to make paper to meet the requirement of the domestic market as well as to export.
“Suppliers say there is a shortage,” Nurun Nabi said.
He blamed the increased freight cost for the fuel price hike amid the Russia-Ukraine war for the increase in the paper price. “But we can’t raise the prices faster like other sectors,” he added.
A ream of offset paper imported from Indonesia was sold at Tk 250 to Tk 260 at the wholesale level a week ago. Now, it costs Tk 400, said Mohammad Mamun, who runs a stationery shop in the city’s Karwan Bazar.
One ream of white papers produced in Bangladesh was sold at Tk 330 a week ago whereas the price now stands at Tk 362.
“When we asked why the price has gone up, suppliers said that the cost of pulp and chemicals had gone up,” said Mamun. The price of exercise books has gone up by Tk 10 to Tk 20, said Ujjal Hossain, a salesman of a stationery store in Mirpur-01.
