Paper-based industries warn that protection may harm exports<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Government protection for the producers of pulp
\nand paper will hamper the development of the country's exports,
\nexecutives of paper-based associations said here yesterday.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Indonesian Corrugated and Cardboard
\nIndustries Association, Johannes Aminoto, told reporters that the
\nrecent 65 percent increase in the prices of paper will adversely
\naffect Indonesia's non-oil exports.<\/p>\n
\"Packaging contributes about 30 percent of the total prices of
\nour export commodities,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Worse still, the price hike is actually due to deliberate
\nmanipulation by the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association (APKI)
\nrather than genuine market factors,\" Johannes, who spoke on
\nbehalf of paper-based associations, said.<\/p>\n
The growth of Indonesia's non-oil exports has slowed down
\nsince last year and its trade surplus in February declined by
\n35.9 percent to US$649.2 million from the same month of last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
The executive said that government policies allow APKI to keep
\nprices on the domestic market at high levels, while the prices of
\ntheir exports stay low.<\/p>\n
The government's protection of the paper and pulp
\nmanufacturers is in the form of duties of up to 48.4 percent on
\nimports.<\/p>\n
\"What makes us even more frustrated is that the APKI's paper
\nis of poor quality,\" Johannes complained.<\/p>\n
He said the protection has caused prices of paper on the
\ndomestic market to be far higher than those on the world market.
\nThe domestic price of HVS paper in April, for example, reached Rp
\n2,474\/kg ($1.18), as compared to 31 U.S. cents in the United
\nStates.<\/p>\n
Subsidy<\/p>\n
APKI spokesman Suresh Kilam told Tempo magazine that paper
\nproducers should set domestic prices at levels allowing them to
\nget subsidies for their exports because they had to resort to
\ndumping to compete on the world market.<\/p>\n
Suresh also said that the paper price increase was partially
\ndue to the 101 percent rise in the price of pulp since November
\n1993.<\/p>\n
Fauzi Lubis, the chairman of Indonesian Printing Company
\nAssociation, who was present at yesterday's press conference,
\nchallenged Suresh's claims. \"According to the figures I got from
\na British paper mill called Argo Wiggins, the increase in the
\npulp price since last year reached only 35.48 percent to $450\/ton
\nin April from $340 in November,\" Fauzi said.<\/p>\n
On the same occasion, an executive of the Association of
\nIndonesian Newspaper Publishers who requested anonymity, said
\ndumping was also practiced by newsprint producers such as PT
\nAspex Paper (controlled by tycoon Bob Hasan and Korean partners)
\nand state-owned PT Pabrik Kertas Letjes.<\/p>\n
Fauzi said the paper-based industry associations plan to take
\ntheir pleas to the House of Representatives soon.<\/p>\n
\"The reaction of the Ministry of Industry to our recent
\ncomplaints has been unsatisfactory,\" he said.<\/p>\n
APKI officials were not available for comment yesterday.(hdj)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/paper-based-industries-warn-that-protection-may-harm-exports-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }