The decline in world paper price/ China cut the capacity of its paper exports

According to the cultural correspondent of Tasnim News Agency, some publishers and paper consumers have been concerned about the rumors about the increase in the world paper price and the impossibility of importing paper from China and Korea in the cyber space. Meanwhile, the paper importers have continued their activities either in cooperation with the paper working group of the Ministry of the Culture and Islamic Guidance or separately, but what is really happening? Will the paper imports from the Asian countries to Iran reach the level of zero in the coming months?

In an interview with Tasnim correspondent, Ali Vazehi, a paper importer and the managing director of Rahkar Barg Behesht Co., pointed to the conditions of importing paper to Iran in recent months and said, "China is the major paper exporter to Iran, but after the increase in their domestic consumption in recent months, the capacity of China's paper exports to the other countries have been decreased."

He continued, "The paper consumption is one of the indexes of development and goes up in developing and developed countries, which is the case in China, too. Last year, paper production in China not only did not increase but also decreased because as per the new legislations of the Chinese government, the production cycle of non-standard companies harming the environment have been stopped. Therefore, the capacity of exports of China has decreased. However, it is not true that the imports from this country has reached zero, so there is not worrisome situation." 

Referring to another paper exporting country to Iran, Korea, the importer said, "The paper imports from Korea also faced problems due to sanctions and carried out via intermediaries, which causes the imported paper to be more expensive and arrive longer. Therefore, the importers who used to buy paper from Korea have limited their purchase because they have to bypass the sanctions, which is costly. Of course, this issue is not related to this one or two recent months."

In response to the question of whether Indonesia has the same conditions as Korea, Vazehi said, "Yes, the purchase from Indonesia should be made through intermediaries and the third country. Some importers have imported and is importing a lot of paper, but the best way is to import from China at the moment because the purchase can be directly made. Of course, India has similar conditions to China from which we import grey-back cardboard and inderboard. Regarding glossy printing and writing paper, Indian products have poor quality. There are a lot of paper making mills in India, but their exporting products are grey-back cardboard and packaging paper." 

Emphasizing that the imports from china not only has not stopped but also continues, he said, "At present, with respect to the arrival of glossy paper cargos from China in recent months, the prices have had remarkable decrease in the market. Cardboard and writing paper cargos also have been imported."

Referring to imports from Europe, the managing director of Rahkar Barg Behesht Co. said, "Portugal produces the best writing paper, but the prices of European paper are higher than Chinese and Korean paper, so the importers are not willing to import paper from these countries."

He finally said, "The world price of paper has not only increased but also faced a slight decrease over recent months."