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Bindu D Menon

New Delhi, May 17 Paper prices are headed north with leading manufacturers such as JK Paper and Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT) revising prices due to rise in input costs and buoyant market demands.

“The inflationary cost is showing on the industry. We have increased the prices of coated paper by Rs 2,000-2,500 a tonne in the beginning of the month. This is in the backdrop of a higher input cost,” Mr Harsh Pati Singhania, Managing Director JK Paper Ltd, told Business Line.

He said the company may also look at increasing the price of uncoated paper in the coming months. Noting that the prices of coated paper were reduced by Rs 5,000 a tonne last year, predominantly due to the growing cheaper imports from China, he said “domestic players have also increased the prices mainly to offset last year’s reduction”.

“We didn’t make enough margins on coated paper last year. The drastic price reduction last year has impacted the bottom lines as well,” Mr Singhania added.

The international prices of coated paper have also gone up from as low as $850 last year to $950-960 at present.

Mr R.R. Vederah, Managing Director, Ballarpur Industries (BILT), said a fortnight ago that the coated paper prices have been hiked by Rs 2,500 a tonne while uncoated paper prices will increase by Rs 700 a tonne.

The price rise was on account of rising input costs, mainly wood and bamboo, along with other raw materials and chemicals. The pulp prices have risen by almost 15 per cent in the last 12-18 months, a Mumbai-based industry analyst noted.

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