AP Paper Mills rolls out Rs 100 cr A4 sheeter facility

New facility to increase company's conversion capacity nearly 4-fold from existing 25,000 tonnes to 90,000 tonnes per annum

The Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Limited (APPML), a group company of the US-based International Paper (IP), on Monday inaugurated a Rs 100-crore facility Bielomatick A4 sheeter designed to covert paper reels into A4, A3 and fullscape sized products.

According to APPML managing director and chief executive officer Rampraveen Swaminathan, the new facility, built in 13 months, will increase the company's conversion capacity by nearly four-fold from the existing 25,000 tonne to 90,000 tonne per annum (tpa).

“This investment goes well with our market strategy of product repositioning,” Swaminathan told mediapersons stating the demand for cut-size products has been growing at 10-11 per cent per annum.

Following the conversion capacity expansion, he said the share of revenue from A4 products was likely to increase from the existing 10 per cent to nearly 35 per cent in future.

After IP took over APPML in October 2011, Swaminathan said the operational environment in the company improved and delivery performance had increased by 20-30 per cent. This had resulted in 8-9 per cent growth in sales volume and accordingly higher revenue growth.

During the 15 months ended March 31, 2012, APPML reported revenues of Rs 1,243.68 crore and a net loss of Rs 23.70 crore. The company management said a steep rise in raw material costs had affected the performance of the paper industry as a whole.

International Paper India president, William Michael Amick Jr, said the branded copier paper market had a good growth potential in India.

Replying to questions about making further investment in APPML, Amick said IP would continue to infuse new technology into its Indian company. He also said there was no proposal at present to de-list Andhra Paper Mills  Limited from the stock exchanges.