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)