Newsprint price to reach year law

JAKARTA (JP): Producers and consumers of newsprint have agreed to lower the price of paper by 12.4 percent, from Rp 1,774 (75 U.S. cents) to Rp 1,554 per kilogram, from July until September this year.

"The agreement was reached at a meeting of the association of of newspaper publishers, the association of Indonesian pulp and paper producers (APKI) and three newsprint producers here on Tuesday night," APKI's chairman, M. Mansur, was quoted as saying by Republika yesterday.

Indonesia has three newsprint producers, state-owned PT Kertas Leces in East Java and PT Aspex Paper and PT Gede Karang in West Java.

This is the third newsprint price reduction since its Rp 2,310 per kilogram peak in the fourth quarter of 1995. It dropped to Rp 1,950 in the first quarter of 1996 and to Rp 1,774 in the second quarter.

Quoting the director general of the agriculture and forestry industry, Sujata, Republika said the declining price of newsprint had been caused by falling secondhand newspaper prices overseas.

Old newspapers and pulp are used to manufacture newsprint.

"The current price of old newspaper on the international market is between $150 and $170 per ton, much lower than between $300 and $400 per ton earlier this year," Sujata said.

He said there was ample newsprint stock. Kertas Leces and Aspex Paper currently produce 265,000 tons annually, while domestic demand for newsprint is about 150,000 tons.

Gede Karang produces newsprint only for its business group which publishes Pos Kota.(kod)