Strong demand for recycled paper in India

BIR world president Ranjit Singh Baxi at last week’s bvse paper recycling conference in Düsseldorf as quoted by Recycling International announced: “India is the only country growing successively by over 7% in the last five years. It will become an even more important business partner for Europe than before”.

“I am sure India’s economy will stay strong in the next two to five years as well. For 2017, the anticipated growth is 7.5%,” Baxi said. He noted that India’s annual paper consumption currently stands at 13 million tonnes and the figure is growing at an average of 7.6% per year.

With a population of 1.25 billion people and a per-capita paper consumption of more than 10 kg, there are 800 paper mills operating countrywide to feed the sharp rise in demand.

Ranjit Singh Baxi about newsprint production

“Newsprint production will be around 6 million tonnes by 2025, requiring about 8 million tonnes of recycled fibre,” Baxi observed. “For Duplex board production, the figure is thought likely to touch 5 million tonnes by 2025, requiring 6.6 million tonnes of recovered fibre. And kraft paper production is expected to be at 7 million tonnes, requiring 9.5 million tonnes of recycled fibre.”