The secretary of the Syndicate of Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers announced an agreement with the Association of Carton and Corrugated Sheet to keep the ceiling on packaging paper exports up to 15 percent.
In an interview with the cultural correspondent of Tasnim News Agency, referring to a meeting held at the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade on Saturday Aug. 24, Mahshid Pourdad, the secretary of the Syndicate of Paper and Cardboard Manufacturers, said, “The agenda of meeting was the request made by some carton making mills to forbid paper exports. The syndicate reported that there was a surplus production in packaging paper and an ability to produce high quality domestic paper which can be exported. It was decided that the process of packaging paper exports would continue while observing the export ceiling of 15% of production, which was agreed by the Association of Carton and Corrugated Sheet.”
She continued, “Last year, following the problems happened in the sector of culture, an export ceiling was determined for packaging ceiling. We wanted to remove the ceiling this. Following the cooperation with the Association of Carton and Corrugated Sheet, it was agreed that the 15% ceiling would be kept for the time being so that the conditions would be provided for more exports.”
Pourdad stressed, “Of course, the 15% ceiling is for fluting and test liner paper, but the exports of white paper and Kraft will be free.”
The secretary of the Syndicate of Paper and Cardboard considered the concern about the packaging paper irrelevant and said, “The nominal production capacity of our manufacturing factories the statistics of which will be announced soon is high. We think if the export ceiling is also removed, there will be no problem because the manufacturers are able to meet the domestic requirements of all carton making factories. We have several exporting companies which have been exclusively established for exports.”
She continued, “Of course, it should not been forgotten that exports face obstacles in the current situations. There have been limitations like the problems of transportation and shipment, foreign currencies, the return of foreign currencies originated from exports, etc. Before the sanctions, we also exported packaging paper to European countries, but we only export to Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia at present.