Conservation Hampers Paper Industry: ExpertsIntegrating the development of the forestry and paper industries and improving the use of wood fibre is expected to be a development trend of the papermaking industry in the 21st century, experts said.Compared with developed countries, experts said, the raw materials resource structure in China's paper industry leaves a lot to be desired. With limited forestry resources, China produces only 2.1 million tons of pulp annually. With the addition of imported pulp, wood pulp makes up only 10.7 per cent of raw materials used in paper production. China mainly uses non-wood fibre, such as straw and recycled paper, compared with foreign countries which now mainly produce high value-added paper using wood fibre. The paper industry using straw and recycled paper as raw materials can only produce low-quality products. Although China's paper production ranks third in the world, it still relies on imports to ease the shortage of high-quality paper. According to statistics of the State Administration of Light Industry, China imported 12.53 tons of paper, paperboard, pulp, paper products and recycled paper last year. Their total value was set at US$5.6 billion, double that of 1995. Experts said the urgent problem in the papermaking industry is easing the shortage of wood for the production of pulp. According to experts, China's paper industry may be still hampered by a shortage of wood for the next 20 years. The State began to ban or place restraints on the felling of trees from natural forests in 1988. Forests in Northeast and Southwest China from where the country's paper factories got their raw materials were closed. With an increase in pulp prices on the international market, the shortage of pulp has become more serious in China. Experts specializing in the paper industry said increasing the pulp supply will be a key to improving the competitive ability of Chinese paper on both domestic and overseas markets. The deputy-director of the China Paper Making Association, Huang Runbin, said paper production enterprises should develop fast-growing forestry on its own. The integration of the forestry and paper industries could be a basic way to ease the short supply of pulp and improve the quality of Chinese-made paper. The method can guarantee a raw material supply for the paper industry and eliminate or reduce damage to the country's natural forest resources, but it can also help local farmers improve their lives and increase the income of local governments, he said. The State should regard the development of cultured forests as a pillar industry, an expert from the China Paper Making Association said. The development of fast-growing forests should be the first "workshop" of a paper factory bent on reducing its production costs. However, the development of paper industry using wood fibre as major raw material requires a large investment. According to the expert, China's paper industry may need hundreds of billions of yuan by 2010. The government's financial support and bank loans cannot meet such a large demand for funds. International co-operation and raising funds on the international financial market may be an effective channel. The State should offer preferential policies to encourage foreign forestry and paper industrial enterprises to invest in China, Huang said. |
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