Baku, Azerbaijan, March 29
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
Iran’s paper output reached 702,300 tons in the first months of the last fiscal year, according to the country’s ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade.
The figure indicates a rise by 32.7 percent compared to the 11-month period of the preceding year.
Meanwhile earlier Gholamreza Shoja, the CEO of Iranian Lithographers Cooperatives, the representative of Print Industry Association said in an interview with Financial Tribune that imports accounted for almost all consumed paper in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18).
Local production cannot even claim to have met 5 percent of newsprint consumption in Iran,” Shoja said.
Iranians consume about 2 million tons of different types of paper and cardboard, of which 400,000 tons a year are used for publications (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.)
There are three paper mills in Iran: Mazandaran Wood and Paper Industries, which is a state-run company that is overstaffed like other public factories; Amirabad Paper Mill in Behshahr located on the coast of Caspian Sea and Pars Paper Company Iran in southern Iran.
According to Shoja locally-produced paper is 15 percent more expensive and its quality is lower than that of imported paper.
The Iranian Industry, Mine and Trade ministry also put the country’s carton output at 444,400 tons in the 11-month period of last fiscal year(March 20, 2017-Feb. 20, 2018).
The Iranian carton output witnessed a rise by 22.1 percent year-on-year.
Iranian manufacturers also produced 641,400 cubic meters of particle board in the period, 16.1 percent less compared to the same period of preceding year.
The country’s hardboard output also stood at 894,800 cubic meters in the same span of time, 9.7 percent more year-on-year.