Prices of printed goods likely to increase by 15%

Ludhiana, August 23, 2013: The price of paper especially Art paper is going to increase by Rs. 3,000 pmt, due to increase in the dollar price because imported pulp is used for the manufacture of these papers.

As per the communication received, Paper mills continue to be impacted severely by increase in raw material costs. Since May 2013, cost of wood delivered at Units has increased by as much as 20%. Fibre procurement has become a huge challenge and the paper industry in India has started sourcing wood chips & logs from Australia , South Africa, Vietnam, Myanmar etc.

Niraj Sinha (VP) Ballarpur Industries Ltd estimates that approximately 1 million mt of wood chips and logs will be imported this year by the industry to meet fibre requirement for paper making.

With the depreciation of the rupee by 14% and its continuous slide against the US Dollar , the landed price of imported fibre and other inputs too has increased forcing Paper mills to increase paper prices to  partially offset the cost increase. The price increase will be effective September 1 this year on all uncoated wood free grades of paper including poster and copier paper.

So with the rise in prices of inputs Printers and Packaging manufacturer have no option but to increase the price of their products, as told by Gagandeep Singh (Secretary, OPA) prices will have to be increased minimum by 15%, to cover the cost of costly inputs. Price rise will take effect immediately as some paper manufacturers have already increased the prices of Paper. It has been decided by OPA that prices of Sweet Boxes, Stationery, Packaging and all other printed items shall be increased in tune of 15-20%.

Further Chopra added that if the Rupee keeps on declining the prices may rise further.