Emami to Commission Packaging Paper Plant in March

Kolkata: Emami Paper Mills, which announced its diversification into high-end packaging paper earlier, would commission its plant by March next year, an official of the company said.

"We are setting up a new state-of-the-art paper packaging plant at its existing facility at Balasore in Odisha on 100 acres of land," Emami Paper executive director P S Patwari told PTI on Tuesday.

He said the plant would manufacture high-end packaging paper use in the packing cosmetics and other consumer items.

Mr Patwari further said the plant would also manufacture elementary chlorine free (ECF) food-grade packaging materials and that the estimated cost of setting up the plant would be Rs 1,000 crore.

So far, the company had been making newsprint at its Kolkata and Balasore plants.

"With the invasion of the digital media, the market for newsprint will not witness much growth and is bleak for which it will not make any fresh investments in this segment," he said.

The plant, which would have a capacity of 1.30 lakh tonnes (LT) per year, would operate in the 5 LT high-end pagkaging paper market with competitors like ITC, J&K and Century Paper.

"The high-end packaging paper market is growing at a rate of 20 per cent per annum", he said.

He said that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the production would be exported, rest to be sold domestically. 

"In the next two years, the new division will contribute around Rs 650 crore, while existing revenue from newsprint sale is Rs 550 crore," Mr Patwari said.

The company would import pulp from Indonesia, Brazil, Scandinavian countries and New Zealand.