Newsprint prices rise by 5.5% in one month

DGFT notification restricting import of the material through actual users stayed by Calcutta High Court

Newsprint prices have risen by up to 5 per cent in the last one month, due to fear of supply disruption, following import restrictions.

Through a notification dated June 3, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) allowed newsprint imports only for actual users holding registration certificates from the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). They would have to file a bill of entry for home consumption or warehousing, at the time of import of goods. By virtue of this notification, independent importers have been barred from importing the material. Since, a large portion of newsprint is imported through independent traders, the DGFT notification has posed a threat on its availability.

Spotting an opportunity here, local newsprint manufacturers have raised their product prices by Rs 1,000-2,000 per tonne to trade currently between Rs 34,000–36,000 a tonne.

Newsprint import in India
Financial year	Volume (mn tonnes)	Value (Rs cr)
2011-12	1.63	5,705
2012-13	1.68	5,881
2013-14	1.48	5,169
2014-15	1.59	5,575
2015-16	1.64	5,739
Source: Industry

“We have raised our product prices by Rs 1,000-2,000 a tonne during the past one month,” said a senior official of a large newsprint manufacturer.

India meets its almost two-third of the newsprint demand of about 2.5 million tonnes through imports. Barring a handful of large newspaper houses, all others require traders’ services due to their inability to import a a container load of the material.

Independent traders, therefore, have been importing newsprint for decades to meet the requirement of small local newspaper houses.

“A majority of newspapers are owned by individuals (barring a few owned by large companies) with limited financial logistics and human resources. Imports of newsprint through third party/agency are vital for small and medium newspapers to maintain their supply chains without tying funds. It also helps ease logistics,” said Sunil Poddar, Managing Director, Poddar Global Pvt Ltd, a Delhi-based three-decade old newsprint importer.

The DGFT order, however, was challenged by Sanmarg Pvt Ltd, a newsprint importer, in the Calcutta High Court where the court granted interim relief to the traders by staying DGFT notification until further order.

“The new amendment in the policy of newsprint import through newsprint handling agencies / custom bonded warehouse will have an adverse impact on newspapers as print media is already passing through difficult time on account of visual, digital and online social media and on the other hand availability of domestic newsprint is also not guaranteed to feed the entire industry due to closure notices issued by National Green Tribunal (NGT) to many Indian mills due to pollution and also many Indian paper mills have closed down due to huge accumulated non-performing assets,” said Poddar.
As per the 59th Annual Report of RNI, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, titled “Press in India 2014-15”, 105,443 titles newspaper and periodicals are published in various languages in India.

Apart from few newspaper titles owned by large corporates, majority of newspapers are owned by individuals with limited financial, logistic and human resources. The imports of newsprint through third party / agency are vital for small and medium newspapers to maintain their supply chains without tying funds. It also helps ease logistics.