Paper Association "Minimize Waste Paper Imports... Resolve Domestic Oversupply"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Korea Paper Association announced on the 23rd that it will halt imports of certain low-cost mixed waste paper types that can be substituted with domestic products, and will minimize imports only for items where domestic collection is insufficient or substitution with domestic products is difficult.

This import minimization measure was prepared as part of a plan to resolve the oversupply of domestic waste paper. The Paper Association is also promoting a plan to produce recycled pulp from domestic waste paper for export. This method involves paper companies producing recycled pulp from waste corrugated cardboard instead of paper products for export.

Since this is an export form of intermediate goods rather than final products, securing profitability is difficult, but the Paper Association's position is to proceed even at some loss to resolve the domestic waste paper backlog.

The Paper Association is simultaneously addressing the supply shortage of waste newspaper and the backlog of waste corrugated cardboard by converting the production of newspaper paper, which has seen decreased demand, into corrugated base paper and construction paper, maximizing operating rates. They plan to expedite the production of paper products that use large amounts of domestic waste paper as much as possible. With these various measures to resolve the oversupply of domestic waste paper, the usage of domestic waste paper is expected to increase by approximately 470,000 tons compared to the previous year.

According to the Paper Association, the domestic paper industry recycled 9.8 million tons of waste paper last year. Of this, 8.59 million tons, or 88%, were domestic waste paper. The remaining 12% was imported waste paper used due to insufficient domestic collection or to ensure the quality of paper products for export. This year, the use of imported waste paper is expected to decrease by 190,000 tons compared to last year.

A representative from the Paper Association stated, "Recently, imports of manufactured goods as well as tropical fruits and other agricultural products have surged, increasing the inflow of packaging materials for imported goods. Along with this, more than 1.2 million tons of paper products are imported annually, resulting in waste paper exceeding domestic recycling capacity."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.