Pulp crunch forces Bangladesh to scramble even for waste paper

A squeeze in pulp imports due to the dollar crunch has turned so severe over the recent months that paper-makers in Bangladesh are salvaging waste paper to keep their production units running ahead of the Textbook Festival on 1 January and month-long Ekushey Book Fair beginning on 1 February next year.   

The import gloom, however, has brought about a business boom for waste paper collectors, traders and big suppliers – who all together comprise a secondary raw material supply chain alternative to pulp to the paper mills.      

For example, take the case of Masudur Rahman – a scrap dealer in Dhaka's Dhanmondi – who has been witnessing a business boom for the last couple of months. 

Masudur buys white waste paper from the collectors, who go door-to-door to buy paper from households, at Tk40 and sell it at Tk50. He said waste paper prices have almost doubled in the last two months.

Even after offering more for waste paper to households, collectors nowadays are not getting enough of the scrap, according to Babul Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Waste Paper Suppliers Association.   

He said the small collectors used to pay Tk30-35 per kg of waste newspaper and Tk50-60 for white waste paper till six months ago. The rates are now Tk48-50 and Tk75-80 per kg respectively. 

"We used to get 200 tonnes of waste paper per month, but it is now tough to collect even only 150 tonnes a month," he told The Business Standard.    

Moklesur Rahman, a waste paper and old book collector in Dhaka's Jigatola, said his daily collection is now 15-20kg per day – down from the previous 40kg. 

Bangladesh has 105 paper mills, but 80 of them are now out of production. The remaining 20 mills need around 4 lakh tonnes of pulp per year. 

But production against the country's 6-7 lakh annual paper demand is now limping, according to the Bangladesh Paper Mills Association, mostly due to the raw material crunch and an inconsistent industrial gas supply.       

Mohammad Sohel, general manager of Raja Paper Mill in Bogura, said the mill has been getting 15-20 tonnes of waste paper against the daily demand of 80 tonnes.    

"We are going through an acute crisis whether the authorities admit it or not," Mustafizur Rahman, a top leader of the Paper Mills Association, told The Business Standard.

Textbook printing compromises on quality  

With the waste paper, mills are making B-grade white paper for the National Curriculum and Textbook Board as it will hold a Textbook Festival on 1 January 2023.    

"As the books will be printed with second-grade paper, printing quality may be compromised," Prof Farhadul Islam, chairman of the board, told The Business Standard.     

The board is responsible for 34 crore textbooks for distribution among pre-primary, primary and secondary level students across the country next year. Prof Farhadul said around 1.10 lakh tonnes of white paper are needed for that.  

"I admit that the [print] quality will not be as we wanted it to be. But you need to consider that we are going through a crisis," he said, adding the Board has supplied 110 tonnes of old books and papers to different paper mills voluntarily till mid-December. 

Millers and printers said manufacturing A-grade white print paper requires virgin pulp. Amid the pulp crunch, the availability of the B-grade papers also falls short of the textbook printing demand.         

Kamrul Hasan Shayok, publisher of Panjeree Publication Ltd and also the vice-president of the Bangladesh Publishers and Book-Sellers Association, said he has nearly a 2-crore textbook printing work order. 

"We have just completed 96 lakh books. The remaining ones will be printed once we get the paper," said Shayok, noting the company's "desperate search" for paper.

However, Prof Farhadul said all the students hopefully will get their new books by 20 January next year. "The board has already sent around 80% of secondary and 60% primary-level textbooks to upazilas till 24 December." 

Paper crisis clouds book fair festivity  

As the paper crisis keeps worsening with no sign of improvement anytime soon, publishers have said they will come up with fewer new books at the next Ekushey Book Fair.

Kamrul Hasan Shayok said Panjeree publishes 300-500 new books during the book fair at regular times. But the number might fall to 45 at best this time.      

Nalanda Publication's Redwanur Rahman Jewel said the number of new books by them could be half this time compared to previous years, thanks to pricier paper.   

Jewel said his firm used to publish 50-60 books during a book fair. "But we have decided to publish only 15-20 new books this time," he added.