JK Paper Ltd may go for another price increase of its range of uncoated paper products late this month or early December to partly pass on the increase in diesel, coal and other raw material prices.
The company, which is India’s leading producer of copier or office communication paper, hiked prices of its uncoated paper by Rs 1,000 a tonne in early October. It has in its portfolio three variants of uncoated paper products, costing between Rs 53,000 and Rs 55,000 a tonne.
“The last price hike was not adequate to cover a significant part of the rise in raw material prices. We could look at another hike of about Rs 1,000 a tonne for these products in November or early December,” A.K. Ghosh, Vice-President (Marketing), told
He said raw material (wood) prices have increase by about 30 per cent in the last one year, while coal also saw an increase in rates.
Correspondingly, freight rates have also been increasing, pushing up the overall cost of raw materials.
JK Paper produces about 1.50 lakh tonnes of non-coated paper products, with its total production capacity being 2.94 lakh tonnes. It has a 28 per cent market share in the domestic copier paper segment, which is currently estimated at 5.51 lakh tonnes.
The Indian paper industry is battling a surge in raw material prices, with major players going for price corrections in the last few months.
India consumes 11.4 million tonnes of paper products (excluding newsprint), which is expected to go up to 20 million tonnes by 2025.