Price of paper up by as much as 40% in Singapore

Channel NewsAsia 25 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE : The price of paper around the world has gone up by as much as 40 percent over the past year.

This has caused the price of recycled paper to increase by 100 percent. Raw pulp now costs almost US$1,000 per tonne.

Industry players said the higher prices are due to higher inflation.

There is also a bigger demand for paper this year, because of the US Presidential Elections and Beijing Olympics.

Many local printing companies have been affected by the price increase, so they are looking for alternatives to remain competitive.

Since the price of imported waste paper is now US$275 per tonne, local waste paper companies have raised their buying price to attract more waste paper collectors. And this has worked.

Companies said they have seen a 25 percent increase in the amount of waste paper collected.

This has led to stiffer competition between waste collectors.

Jimmy Tay, Managing Director, SembEnviro Tay Paper Pte Ltd, said, "We observed that (during) the weekends (and) the public holidays, we can see a lot of these foreign workers, they also go out and become collectors...which is unhealthy competition for our regular collectors." - CNA/ms