50% of China's high-grade cultural paper imports

It was learned from the China Light Industry Information Center that China’s high-end cultural paper consumed nearly 3 million tons in 2003, of which 1.2 million tons were imported, which accounted for about 50% of the demand.
At present, the high profit area of ​​the paper industry is mainly concentrated on high-grade cultural paper. The huge market potential has caused many foreign companies to rush around in China and invest in factories. However, the market share of domestic companies has dropped drastically, and only 10 of them have produced high-end cultural paper.
High-end cultural paper production includes coated paper and high-grade lightweight coated paper. It is mainly used to print textbooks, high-grade magazines, photo albums, product samples, copy paper, carbonless copy paper, printing paper, and product advertisements. Relevant statistics show that in 2002, China imported 614,800 tons of coated paper, the amount of which reached 438,265,900 US dollars; imported high-grade lightweight coated paper 602,800 tons, the amount of 379.6606 million US dollars.
Contrary to the increasing trend of the high-end cultural paper market year after year, Chinese enterprises are lagging behind in the development of high-end cultural paper. There are less than 50 companies with a total output of more than 100,000 tons, and only 50 companies There are more than 10 high-end cultural papers produced. The output is hard to meet demand, and nearly 50% depends on imports.
The general low-grade paper is already in the low-profit stage, and the profit space available for development is extremely limited, but the potential of high-grade cultural paper is very great. It is reported that the average tariff of China’s paper products has dropped from 15.9% in 2001 to 9.7% in 2002. As a result, more foreign products have entered the Chinese market in large quantities, especially in the high-end paper products market, and the impact on domestic companies is quite large. Product market competition has become increasingly fierce.
High-end and new products are the new economic growth points of the paper industry. With a leading position in a certain product field, they can seize market opportunities to gain higher returns. For example, the companies that took the lead in the previous years to start the coated paper project gained considerable profits. It is precisely this market in China that many foreign companies are staking their enclosures in China. Finland’s Stora Enso invested in Suzhou last year and built a 450,000-ton copper coated paper production line, which is the largest in China. One of the coated paper production lines. After the completion of the project, the output of coated paper from Suzhou Zixing will increase from the current annual output of 150,000 tons to 600,000 tons.