Paper profits in the first four months increased by 7 times year-on-year! Paper industry walks out of the market of "stabilizing and improving"

Economic Herald reporter Duan Haitao reports from Rudong, Jiangsu that China's paper industry has become one of the world's paper-making powers after years of rapid development and technological transformation. How to build new quality productivity and promote the sustainable development of the industry has become a hot topic in the industry. According to the data of China Paper Association, the pulp, paper and paper products industry in 2023 totaled 291.39 million tons, up 2.63% year-on-year. The operating income of the whole industry was 1.39 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.39%; The total profit was 50.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.39%. From January to April 2024, the whole industry showed signs of stabilization. "The new quality productivity is characterized by innovation, the key is high quality, and the essence is advanced productivity." Cao Chunyu, chairman of China Papermaking Society, said at the "2024 China Paper Industry Sustainable Development Forum" held on June 20th that the paper industry in China is still facing the situation of being big but not strong, with many scientific and technological achievements but not refined, and the innovation behavior is scattered but not aggregated. We should build new quality productivity through scientific and technological innovation, transformation and upgrading, and strive to achieve the goals of 140 million tons of paper and paperboard in 2025 and 170 million tons in 2035. The long-term goal of the paper industry has been made clear that "the paper industry is an important basic raw material industry, which not only provides functional basic raw materials for industry and agriculture, science and technology, national defense, but also provides consumer materials for people's culture and life." The per capita consumption of paper is also an important indicator to measure a country's economic and cultural strength. " Zhaowei, chairman of China Paper Association, said at the forum that the modern paper industry has developed into a technology-intensive industry, which includes many technical fields, and there is still huge room for development. Zhaowei introduced that at present, China's annual per capita paper consumption is more than 90 kilograms, while the average annual per capita consumption in moderately developed countries is 120 to 150 kilograms, and that in developed countries is basically more than 200 kilograms. If we reach the level of moderately developed countries with an annual per capita consumption of 120 kilograms, the demand for paper will be at least 170 million tons; If the per capita is 150 kg, the total demand will reach 190 million tons. "Now the total consumption is only 130 million tons. Theoretically, there is still room for development in the industry." According to the data of China Paper Industry Association, in 2023, the output of paper and paperboard in China was 129.65 million tons, an increase of 4.35% over the previous year, and the consumption was 131.65 million tons, an increase of 6.14% over the previous year. The output of pulp was 88.23 million tons, up by 2.75% over the previous year, and the consumption was 118.99 million tons, up by 5.35% over the previous year. The output of paper products was 73.51 million tons, down 0.38% from the previous year, and the consumption was 68.23 million tons, down 1.07% from the previous year. "From January to April this year, the output of the paper industry increased, and the sales volume generally increased. The profit of paper has gone out of the downturn in the same period last year, and the profit has increased by seven times." Zhaowei revealed that in the first four months of this year, the output of pulp, paper and paper products in the whole industry was 6.06 million tons, 49.72 million tons and 21.37 million tons, both of which increased by more than 14% year-on-year, while the income and profit data of the latter two also increased year-on-year. According to the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the medium and long-term high-quality development outline of the paper industry, in 2025, the total output of paper and paperboard in China will reach 140 million tons (the annual per capita consumption will reach 100 kilograms), the output of primary pulp will reach 30 million tons, and the output of paper products will reach 90 million tons. In 2035, the total output of paper and paperboard will reach 170 million tons (the annual per capita consumption will reach more than 120 kilograms), the proportion of primary pulp will be more than 30%, and the output of paper products will be 120 million tons. Zhaowei said that the paper industry is sustainable, because it has the characteristics of green property and circular economy. At present, nearly 60% of the raw materials used in China's paper industry are recycled paper, and many of the wood used are also the residues and secondary materials of wood processing plants. In addition, the paper industry is very perfect in the treatment of solid, gas and liquid waste at present, and it has become a modern industry. Nearly 80% of raw wood pulp depends on imported raw materials. The reporter learned that Shandong plays an important role in China's paper industry. Professor Chen Jiachuan, former president of Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) and director of the State Key Laboratory of Bio-based Materials and Green Papermaking, told the Economic Herald that Shandong is the largest paper-making province and also a pulp-making province. In 2023, five leading enterprises, including Sun Paper, Chenming Paper and Shandong Bohui, produced 23.6 million tons of paper, accounting for 18.2% of the country. The total output of the top five pulp enterprises in Shandong is 11.25 million tons, which is exactly half of the national pulp output. However, China's paper industry is also facing a serious shortage of resources. Chen Jiachuan said that it is impossible to use waste paper pulp in papermaking, which accounts for about 60% and needs to be supplemented with 40% virgin pulp. Primary pulp Last year, there were 10.4 million tons of domestic wood pulp, 12 million tons of imported wood pulp and 26.84 million tons of imported wood pulp, and 38.84 million tons of imported pulp and imported wood pulp, accounting for 78.8% of the total primary wood pulp of 49.31 million tons, which was highly dependent on foreign countries. Cao Chunyu said that China's paper industry is still facing a staged or local overcapacity, and at the same time it is also facing a situation in which the export growth of traditional light industrial products is weak. It can no longer be expected to increase the consumption of paper and cardboard through the growth of total exports as in the past. In terms of scientific and technological innovation, Cao Chunyu said that since 2009, China's paper industry has ranked first in the world, accounting for more than a quarter of the world's total output, but the advantages of fiber raw materials, advanced equipment and high-performance materials are not obvious; There are many scientific and technological achievements, but they are not refined. According to the statistical analysis of the scientific and technological circles in the industry, only 10% to 30% of China's cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements are used in actual production, and only 20% of them really form an industry. "There are not many that can really feed back or promote industrial technological progress, and can really promote the economic benefits of enterprises and the technological upgrading of enterprises." Cao Chunyu said that the scientific and technological innovation behavior of the paper industry is scattered but not gathered, and the main body and leading characteristics of enterprises are not obvious. Nearly 100 universities, research institutes, design institutes and nationally recognized technology centers have more fragmented modes, and integration, coordination and innovation are weak. Integrating green and wisdom to build new quality productivity In view of the opportunities and challenges faced by the paper industry, industry experts and enterprise executives have also given countermeasures. Chen Jiachuan believes that in terms of raw materials, the utilization of agricultural residues is an important direction. Shandong has established a 200,000-ton wheat straw bio-mechanical pulp production line in Century Sunshine, which has been completed and put into operation. However, the basic research of straw pulping is relatively weak, and there is no major breakthrough. The original and subversive technologies are relatively lacking. In addition, the quality of straw pulp is uneven, unstable and poor in drainage, which limits the application scope of straw pulp. Efficient utilization of fiber resources based on papermaking platform is also a direction worthy of attention. Chen Jiachuan said that building an integrated platform for refining agriculture, forestry, pulp and paper can greatly improve the utilization rate. For example, in agricultural and forestry residues, cellulose can be used as nano-cellulose in addition to papermaking, and can be used as a derivative of dissolved pulp cellulose; Lignin is burned as heat energy recovery, and it can also be used as other products, adhesives and so on. Cao Chunyu suggested that the whole industry should pool resources and do more things in the collaborative innovation of bamboo pulping and papermaking technology and equipment, such as tissue culture of special bamboo, systematic development of planting technology, special equipment for collection, storage and transportation, and changes in business model. In terms of scientific and technological innovation, enterprises should be the leading and traction force, actively make questions and dare to try, and base scientific and technological achievements and achievements on practical results. Professor Liu Huanbin, former president of South China University of Technology, said at the forum that intelligent manufacturing is an important content of new quality productivity, and it is a new mode of production produced by the deep integration of a new generation of information technology with paper industry and traditional industry. In order to realize the sustainable development of paper industry, greening and intelligence are indispensable. It is necessary to unite various forces, including enterprises, governments and society, and accelerate the transformation to intelligence. "Among them, how to develop the industrial intelligence technology of the paper industry? How to apply the technology? Entrepreneurs should play a leading role in improving in application and iterating in application. " Liu Huanbin said. Zhai Jingli, vice president of APP (China) of Jinguang Group, said at the forum that enterprises are not only the main body of market economy, but also the main body of scientific and technological innovation. Enterprises should develop with scientific and technological innovation, and strive to cultivate new quality productivity by promoting the deep integration of high-tech and physical industries, strengthening the transformation of scientific research and innovation achievements, and deepening the coordinated development and innovation of the whole link, so as to realize the sustainable and high-quality development of enterprises and industries. It is reported that as a leading enterprise in the paper industry, Jinguang Group APP (China) has made the factory intelligent, green and high-end by promoting the deep integration of high-tech and physical industries. For example, Rudong Factory relies on advanced technical concepts such as 5G, cloud computing and "Industry 4.0+ Artificial Intelligence", and selects the world-advanced production data automation system and production automation equipment such as AGV, RGV and RFID to organically combine papermaking, processing and logistics, so as to realize information digitization, modular management and production automation, and finally realize the digital coverage of the whole process from suppliers to pulp mills, paper mills and customers, thus reducing the overall energy consumption of the workshop by 25%.