report in Daily Asian Age, Dhaka, Jan 16, 2023
Sharp price rises of newsprint and white papers of both local make and imports have put Bangladesh’s publishing industry and other consumers in a quandary, as one of fallouts from the current global turmoil.
Prices of all kinds of newsprint papers have made a quantum leap by almost 100 per cent in a year, when things started getting back to normal with the pandemic loosening its grips, say stakeholders, including newspaper owners.
Supply crunch of the raw materials, including waste paper and chemicals, higher import cost, devaluation of the Bangladesh taka against the US dollar, supply-chain disruption due to the Russia-Ukraine war, shipping costs, and a sudden upturn in demand after the scarcity are to blame for the price hike.
Some publishers have already postponed printing books while the daily newspapers have to increase price or cut short production to offset the higher operational costs.
The prices of newsprint papers may go further up in the days ahead, exacerbating the situation, industry people have expressed the fear.
They say that, presently, the import prices of per-ton newsprint coming from countries like Korea, Russia, Indonesia, Canada, Spain and India, are between Tk 130,000 and Tk 152,000.
Last week, the price of each ton of newsprint of Korean make was Tk 152,000, up from Tk 84,000 a year ago. The Russian one costs Tk 138, 000 per ton.
Traders in Dhaka’s Nayabazar and Fakirerpool hubs said the price of per-ton newsprint papers increased almost 100 per cent on average over the year.
Tofail Ahmed, manager at Green Paper House, said a ton of locally produced newsprint was selling at Tk 71,500 per ton in recent weeks compared to Tk 35,000 a year before.
Proprietor of Al Noor Paper House Md Nooru Nabi told journalists the sector was now passing through a volatile situation as the prices of different types of paper, including newsprint, change frequently in recent times.
https://dailyasianage.com/news/300226/mounting-paper-price-imperils-publications
