APKI forecasts increase in pulp, paper exports

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association (APKI) said it expected the total export of pulp, paper and paper products to increase by 13 percent this year to US$3.4 billion compared to last year.

APKI chairman M. Mansur said on Friday that the demand for pulp, paper and paper products on the world market was extremely high and Indonesia was able to increase production.

He said that the demand for paper on the world market stood at 325 million tons a year, and that it increased annually by between 2 percent and 3 percent.

"Indonesia and Brazil are the only two countries still able to increase its pulp production capacity because of our vast forests," he said, explaining that pulp, the raw material for paper, was made from wood or wood waste obtained from the companies' industrial forests.

Out of the country's three million hectares of industrial forests, only 1.2 million have been utilized, Mansur said, adding that Indonesia had 141 million hectares of forest.

"Production capacity in top-producing countries, such as North America and Scandinavia, are limited because their forests aren't as vast," he said in a discussion here.

Mansur said that Indonesia's rank as one of the largest paper producers in the world slipped from 11th place to 12th after Brazil this year.

"It's because we haven't increased our capacity for several years due to the crisis," he said, adding that he hoped the new government under President Megawati Soekarnoputri would be able to quickly resolve economic problems so that companies could begin expansion to fulfill the export demand.

Top paper producers include the United States, Japan, China, Canada, Germany, Finland, Sweden, France, Korea, Italy, Brazil and Indonesia. Countries producing pulp include the United States, Canada, China, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia.

Indonesia's 81 pulp and paper companies produce 5.2 million tons of pulp a year and 9.1 million tons of paper a year.

Domestic consumption for paper rose to 3.95 million tons last year compared to 3.5 million tons in 1999, and pulp consumption also rose slightly to 3.5 million tons in 2000 from 3.47 million during the previous year.(tnt)