China Paper Association (CPA) held its 5th Member Conference and the 3rd meeting of its 5th Council in Kunming, Southwest China on April 28th. For deliberation of the industry’s near and future goals, CPA presents to the members a "14th Five-Year Plan and Medium and Long-term High-quality Development Outline of the Paper Industry”.

 Under the Plan and Outline, China’s paper and paperboard production will reach 140 million/mt by 2025, which will enable annual per capita consumption of 100 kilos in the country. To achieve the goal, national output of virgin pulp should grow to 30 million/mt and paper/board products to 90 million/mt, along with maintenance of advanced world levels in fiber/energy/ water consumption by per unit product, product quality and reduction of pollutant emissions.

 Long-term by 2035, national paper and board production will top 170 million/mt (available of 130 kilos by annual per capita consumption) and national output of paper and board products to 120 million/mt. This will need to increase the proportion of virgin pulp to more than 30% in the overall pulp output. Also as a goal, the industry will strive to increase biomass energy production to account for no less than 35% of total energy consumption, together with +90% in the proportion of cogeneration and advanced world-levels in per unit production fiber/water/ energy consumption and pollutant emissions.

Based on CPA’s 2020 annual report, China produced 112.60 million/mt of paper and board, 68.60 million/mt of paper products and 73.78 million/mt of paper-grade pulp (including 14.90 million/mt of wood pulp) during the year. Apparently, pulp production was only able to cover 72.3% of industry consumption of 102 million/mt! And more seriously, virgin pulp production during the year was only able to meet 36.83% of the total consumption, leaving the significant balance to market pulp imports from the outside world. To hit the 2025-goal with increased production to 27.40 million/mt of paper/board and 21.40 million/mt of paperproducts, the industry will need to supply an additional 9.85 million/mt of virgin pulp – an surge by +66.11% from its 2020 output! And in view of the limited forest resources in the country, the industry would have either actively increase wood chip imports or source local shrubs, such as pulping pepper tree that Nine Dragons is targeting at, and revisit the pulping of non-wood fiber such as wheat and paddy stalks by other large pulp producers in upper China.