Newsprint

In the three decades since 1962, the Asia-Pacific region's consumption of newsprint increased from 2 to 7.6 million metric tons, and its world share rose from 13% to 24% (Table 65). However, the regional consumption is still small relative to its population, considering that the combined consumption of the United States and Canada is 45% of the world total. The annual average growth was 9.4% in the 1960s, 4% in the 1970s and 4.4% in the 1980s. Per capita consumption of newsprint averaged 2.5 Kg in the region in 1992, while the world average was 5.6 Kg. Within the region, per capita consumption ranged from 37.6 kg in Australia and 30 kg in Japan to 0.74 kg in China and 0.14 kg in Viet Nam. The largest consumers of newsprint are Japan (3.7 million metric tons), China (877 thousand metric tons), Australia (658 thousand), the Republic of Korea (593 thousand), and India (495 thousand).

Table 65. Consumption of newsprint, in thousand metric tons, 1962-1992.

Country	1962	1972	1982	1992
Australia	282	403	558	658
Bangladesh	31	1	33	50
Bhutan
Cambodia	3	0	0	0
China	263	491	549	877
Fiji	0	1	2	2
French Polynesia	0	0	1	1
Hong Kong	27	50	87	212
India	124	196	461	495
Indonesia	8	50	95	112
Japan	935	2089	2703	3715
Korea Dem People's Rep	0	1	5	0
Korea Rep	43	113	229	593
Laos
Macau	0	3	6	3
Malaysia	19	32	99	202
Myanmar	15	12	12	11
Nepal	0	0	0	0
New Caledonia	0	0	3	1
New Zealand	85	89	163	101
Pakistan	0	18	27	60
Papua New Guinea	0	1	0	0
Philippines	83	112	66	127
Samoa
Singapore	0	23	50	101
Solomon Islands
Sri Lanka	11	10	15	19
Thailand	16	50	97	238
Tonga
Vanuatu
Viet Nam	0	21	9	10
Asia Pacific	1945	3766	5270	7588
World	14733	22238	25627	30983
Share	13%	17%	21%	24%

Literacy is an important factor in the consumption of newsprint and printing and writing paper. An improvement in literacy should result in an increase in the annual consumption of newsprint and printing and writing paper. But, competition of electronic media may work against newsprint consumption, with advertising and news broadcasting moving to electronic media, and electronic information storage and retrieval taking over from paper. Still, income and population remain the underlying source for increase in consumption in the region. Recent economic developments in many countries of the region have boosted their newsprint consumption. In terms of quantity, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China had the largest increases from 1982 to 1992, while on a percentage basis, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Pakistan all experienced significant growth.

Only one-third of the countries in the region produce noticeable amount of newsprint. The regional production was 1.6 million metric tons in 1962, and had increased to 6 million in 1992 (Table 66). In the mean time, its world share also climbed from 11% to 19%. Japan is the largest producer in the region: 3.3 million metric tons in 1992. Other major producers include the Republic of Korea with 613 thousand metric tons, China (603 thousand), Australia (446 thousand), New Zealand (379 thousand), and India with 340 thousand metric tons.

Table 66. Production of newsprint, in thousand metric tons, 1962-1992.

Country	1962	1972	1982	1992
Australia	91	182	307	446
Bangladesh	31	28	44	50
Bhutan
Cambodia	1	0	0	0
China	291	450	403	603
Fiji
French Polynesia
Hong Kong
India	25	42	102	340
Indonesia	0	3	0	169
Japan	941	2060	2580	3255
Korea Dem People's Rep
Korea Rep	38	108	244	613
Laos
Macau
Malaysia
Myanmar
Nepal
New Caledonia
New Zealand	116	213	322	379
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Philippines	46	70	63	125
Samoa
Singapore
Solomon Islands
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Tonga
Vanuatu
Viet Nam	0	0	5	10
Asia Pacific	1580	3156	4070	5990
World	14583	21853	24962	32011
Share	11%	14%	16%	19%

Growth of production in most countries was slower than that of consumption, except for few countries such as Indonesia, India, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea. Indonesia's production took off since the mid-1980s and reached 169 thousand metric tons by 1992. Production in the Republic of Korea rose sharply during the 1980s, mainly in response to domestic demand, but it has also been a net exporter of newsprint since the mid-1970s.

Tables 67 to 69 give the imports, exports and direction of trade statistics for newsprint, from 1962 to 1992. For years, the Asia-Pacific region has been a net importer of newsprint. The total imports increased from 442 thousand metric tons in 1962 to 2.1 million metric tons in 1992, while total exports rose only from 88 to 485 thousand metric tons over the same period. Over 78% of the total imports of the Asia-Pacific countries came from other regions: 33% from Canada, 29% from USA, and 16% from the European Union.

Table 67. Imports of newsprint, in thousand metric tons, 1962-1992.

Country	1962	1972	1982	1992
Australia	191	221	252	212
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Cambodia	2	0	0	0
China	1	44	146	277
Fiji	0	1	2	2
French Polynesia	0	0	1	1
Hong Kong	27	51	94	223
India	99	154	359	155
Indonesia	8	47	95	22
Japan	0	80	244	544
Korea Dem People's Rep	0	1	5	0
Korea Rep	5	5	0	0
Laos
Macau	0	3	6	3
Malaysia	19	32	99	202
Myanmar	15	12	12	11
Nepal	0	0	0	0
New Caledonia	0	0	3	1
New Zealand	11	0	0	6
Pakistan	0	18	27	60
Papua New Guinea	0	1	0	0
Philippines	37	42	3	2
Samoa
Singapore	0	25	55	105
Solomon Islands
Sri Lanka	11	10	15	19
Thailand	16	50	97	238
Tonga
Vanuatu
Viet Nam	0	21	4	0
Asia Pacific	442	818	1519	2083
World	7722	11180	12173	15325
Share	6%	7%	12%	14%

Japan led the importing countries with 544 thousand metric tons in 1992, followed by China (277 thousand), Thailand (238 thousand), Hong Kong (223 thousand), Australia (212 thousand) and Malaysia with 202 thousand metric tons. For exports, the major suppliers in the region in 1992 were New Zealand, Japan and Indonesia. Almost all of their exports went to other countries in the region.

Table 68. Exports of newsprint, in thousand metric tons, 1962-1992.

Country	1962	1972	1982	1992
Australia	0	0	1	0
Bangladesh	0	27	11	0
Bhutan
Cambodia
China	29	3	0	3
Fiji
French Polynesia
Hong Kong	0	1	7	11
India
Indonesia	0	0	0	79
Japan	6	51	121	84
Korea Dem People's Rep
Korea Rep	0	0	15	20
Laos
Macau
Malaysia	0	0	0	0
Myanmar
Nepal
New Caledonia
New Zealand	42	124	159	284
Pakistan	12	0	0	0
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Samoa
Singapore	0	2	5	4
Solomon Islands
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Tonga
Vanuatu
Viet Nam
Asia Pacific	89	208	319	485
World	7572	10795	11508	15438
Share	1%	2%	3%	3%

Table 69. Direction of trade in newsprint, in thousand metric tons, 1992.