Domestic newsprint manufacturers rise the price by 7-8%

This amounts to Rs 2,000 a tonne for the 45gsm variety. Currently the consumption of newsprint in the domestic market is estimated at 2 million tonnes.

The Indian newspaper industry will witness a second price rise in the current financial year 2010 -11. Half of the domestic newsprint demand is being fulfilled through imports by the foreign suppliers.

Even they have hiked the prices by around Rs 2,340 per tonne taking the final amount to Rs 30,870 per tonne. In February 2009, when newsprint prices were at a high of Rs 37,000-40,000 per tonne, the Government of India had provided relief to publications by bringing down the import duty to nil.

A single component which is affecting the increase in newsprint cost is the increase in the cost of waste paper. It accounts for 60-65% of the input cost and is estimated to be higher that what it was when the newsprint price was above Rs 42,000 per tonne.

This is justified by the fact that within a span of three quarters, the waste paper price has jumped from Rs 7,000-8,500 a tonne to Rs 11,500-13,500 in the current scenario.