The current shortage of offset paper in Russia may be created artificially, according to recent statements, made by Yuri Lakhtikov, chairman of the Russian Association of Paper Industry Organizations, a public association, which unites some leading paper producers in Russia.
As Lakhtikov told in an interview with Rossyiskay Gazeta business paper Russia is quite self-sufficient in its paper industry.
Yuri Lakhtikov comments:
“We have huge forest resources. In addition, despite the pandemic, our enterprises operated throughout 2020, none of them stopped and did not reduce production volumes. Last year, Russia produced only 4% less offset paper than in 2019, due to the fact that the demand for it fell during the lockdown period, when many offices were closed and people went to work remotely».
According to Lakhtikov, all the mills of the pulp and paper sector of the country are monitored by the Russian anti-trust regulator the Federal Antimopoly Service and report to it on a quarterly basis on the volume of products produced and prices for it.
There were no disruptions in the production of other paper materials. On the contrary, last year the production of packaging materials grew by 20% and - 15% in the case of cardboard.
While the production of newsprint declined by 15%, that became mainly due to the reduction of circulation of paper newspapers last year due to lockdown.