Newsprint will be sold in rupiah

Newsprint will be sold in rupiah

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Indonesian Pulp and Paper
(APKI) and the Association of Indonesian Newspaper Publishers
(SPS) agreed yesterday that newsprint will be sold in rupiah, not
in U.S. dollars as was the custom.

"We have both agreed that newsprint will not be sold in
dollars anymore," chairman of the APKI presidium, Muhammad
Mansur, said as quoted by Antara.

Speaking after a meeting with the Director General of the
Agricultural and Forestry Products Industry at the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, Mansur said the decision to change was
prompted by the newsprint price rise boosted by the rupiah's
weakening exchange rate against the U.S. dollar.

He said that the price hike was also caused by increasing
expenditure on electricity and manpower, the rise of pulp and
paper prices in the international market and the dumping of
imported white paper from the United States, Canada and France.

A new agreed price has yet to be decided.

"We'll meet again Monday to decide the new newsprint price,"
Mansur said.

The price of newsprint has risen sharply since March.

Newsprint sold in the market at Rp 1,254 (25 U.S. cents) per
kilogram in January, Rp 1,304 per kilogram in March, and rose to
Rp 6,025 per kilogram this month.

The sharp rise threatens the susceptible press industry which
has already seen a number of publications shut down in the past
month. (imn)