The Hindu Business Line : `Paper industry needs $8 b investment'

THE Indian paper and paperboards industry requires investment of about $8 billion over the next 10 years to augment additional capacity of about 5-6 million tonnes per annum, according to Mr Kasi Viswanathan, President of Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association (IPPTA).

Speaking at Papertech 2005, Mr Viswanathan, who is also President of Seshasayee Paper, said: "It is ironical to note that not even a single greenfield plant has come up in the country over the last 20 years. However, if the sector growth witnessed over the last few years is anything to go by, we would need to diversify and produce higher quality paper."

In his keynote address, Mr Viswanathan said India is fast integrating into the world economy and the pulp and paper sector must leverage the latest automation technologies to be a global force to reckon with. There is this peculiarity of the paper industry in the country — while the bulk orders, as is the case with newsprint, is high volume and low return business, small orders fetch more revenues. Therefore, the industry, which is fragmented, has to adopt technologies that address specialised requirements and improve productivity.

The Chief Executive of ITC Ltd, Paperboards and Speciality Division, Mr Pradeep Dhobale, citing the case of ITC Bhadrachalam, emphasised the growing importance of adopting new automation technologies.

Benefits of productivity, efficiency, process automation and quality are critical to remain competitive.

Mr Dhobale said the paper industry is growing at about the same rate of 6.5-7 per cent in line with the GDP. However, there is huge potential out there to be tapped, since the per capita paper consumption in the country is barely 4 kg per annum as opposed to 18-19 kg in Indonesia, 40 kg in Brazil and 29 kg in the case of China.

The President of Automation Industry Association (AIA), Mr Ravi Uppal, said AIA's vision is to facilitate the global competitiveness of Indian industry. The pulp and paper sector is a mature and well recognised industry.

Papertech aims to provide a common platform for information sharing on new automation technologies. The event has been designed to be vendor neutral where participants include representatives from Rockwell, Honeywell, ABB and Voith.

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