Future of Paper Industry in India & does it differ from chemical sector ?

                           

Future of Paper Mills

Nowadays, there is down fall in the Paper Industry. This down fall is not limited to India but also in other countries of the world. Today, we will discuss some facts of this down fall in paper industry of India.

Let us start from the 19th or the beginning of 20th century when Paper Industry was in more demand because the use of the paper was at peak in the offices, colleges, universities, Govt sector & in many other businesses too. But with the passage of the time, We have seen sea change in the technology sector.  IT sector reforms changed the working style of the world business. Before we discuss the downfall factors of the paper Industry, we should understand the process of the paper Industry.

            

The process of the paper manufacturing industry in Brief

Paper industry mainly depends on the forests products like wood, grass as well the use of different chemicals also play important role in the paper industry.These both different segments of products play vital role in the process of the paper manufacturing. As Steel industry require raw material like mineral & ores, similarly If we well talk about the construction sector then for this sector raw material is cement and concretes  etc Further cement sector always require different raw materials like sand & chemicals. It means that chemical sector play vital role in the many industries.

The more use of the natural resources in the paper industry required government permission. The other use of raw materials like Water, sugarcane residue, softwood etc are the example of other resources.

Before the use of raw material, transportation play vital role on the paper manufacturing industry because if the raw material will be transported to the Pulp manufacturing mills, only then process will be started. After this step wood trees will be processed & it will be converted into the wood pulp. This wood pulps will be mixed with the special paper chemicals or colour then manufacture paper.

In the paper manufacturing sector, the location of the paper will play important role because transportation cost of paper mills are bit high. In the north India paper mills are playing important role in employment generation. The state like Maharashtra, calcutta or kolkata, Gujarat, Odisha & Haryana having good number of paper mills because the raw material availability for paper pulp mills.

Paper mills are the small scale industry in India but this sector give more employment opportunities. Paper mills are required more labour work & it is highly mechanised in its process. Therefore it will employment to the highly skilled labour. The use of the electricity is most important in this industry too.

Discussion on Future of Paper Industry in India:

Due to more advancement into the technology in IT sector the demand of the paper came to the lower level. There is not any doubt that IT sector is taking India to new heights but the use of the paper may less but it never come to an end. Le us discuss in brief.

When we were into the school and colleges or Universities then there was more use of  paper note books but nowadays Paper note books have converted into the laptop or desktop bases note books. The cloud computing is in more demand. Yes, there is no doubt that it save the time and nature resources. but still the use of the paper work in school & colleges  are required because hand written notes practice is also very important.

The more use of IT products in offices & in businesses is also one of the factor of less demand in the paper sector. But the use of the paper in documentation is still required especially in the government sector.

Paper mills are not only limited to the manufacturing in the paper sheets, Also it plays important role in packing industry for making card boards and other packaging materials. These all requirement will never come to end. The use of the special type of papers will also be in demand, mainly the in the packaging industry the use of the special papers in the cigarette manufacture industry in wrapping.

The use of the paper in the newspaper industry or we can say in the print media industry will also be in more demand. We can understand today era is of digitisation but people cannot think their morning without Paper newspaper.

If we will see the data of per CAPITA paper usage then Germany & USA will lead in this sector. In India, it is very less as compare to other countries of the world. We can say that in the paper packing Industry there is good scope. Companies Like ITC, JK Paper, West coast paper, TNPL etc are gaining good market share.Recently the prices of the waste papers also increased or we can see almost double from Pre covid levels of $100. China government has also put a ban on import of waste papers& it is increasing the price of waste papers. The ban on the Plastic will also give boost to the paper Industry.

The difference between Paper pulp mills and Chemical industry or chemical sector

The use of chemical sector in the paper industry is playing very important role. The chemicals like chlorine Dioxide from pulp bleaching, calcium magnesium carbonate for coating or filler, hydrogen peroxide, calcium oxide, calcium hydroxide for cigarette paper, DTPA etc. Over all we can say that chemical industry products are in more demand for paper mills. The main difference in the chemical sector & paper pulp sector is the use of the raw materials. In paper sector there is more use of natural resources as compared to the chemical sector. IF we will talk about the growth of chemical sector then it has more potential that paper industry because there is no alternative of chemicals, whereas advancement in the IT sector has given many alternatives for using paper products.

Chemical sector required a special skills to join this industry because it requires full knowledge or study of the science. The formulas use in the chemical sector can only be took into the use if a person has study science back ground where as in paper mills industry there is not much requirement of chemical formulas. 

In nutshell, we can say that Paper pulp mills future looks not much bright but the demand in the packaging sector and less use of the plastic bags may give some hopes to the paper industry. The growth in the chemical sector will lead the industry. The use of the dyes, colours, and special chemicals in the paper mills will always in demand. Alternatives will always come into the every industry because the world has depend on the technology. It will be challenge for paper pulp mills or industry to maintain its revenues in the future.

Also Read: Growth of Chemical sector in India