Seshasayee Paper's Board of Directors approves securing environmental permissions in order to accelerate growth

19 Jun 2023 , 12:27 PM

The Board of Seshasayee Paper and Boards Ltd., an integrated paper producer, has given preliminary approval to begin the expansion work of its project under the Mill Development Plan-IV in the Erode plant. The firm announced this on Sunday. The idea was to increase the manufacturing facility’s pulp and paper production capacity in Tamil Nadu.

Seshasayee Paper stated in a regulatory filing that the increased pulping capacity will assist the business replace the more expensive purchased pulp and lower the overall cost of producing per tonne of paper in the unit at Tirunelveli and the Servalakshmi mill.

The business has submitted the required paperwork to the Ministry of Environment and Forests in Seshasaye for environmental clearances related to climate change.

The Erode-based firm reported receiving environmental approval for Project Mill Development Plan IV at its production facility in Erode, which will increase paper capacity from 1.65 lakh tonne to 2.31 lakh tonne per year and pulp capacity from 1.80 lakh tonne to 2.52 lakh tonne per year.

After the receipt of the required environmental approvals, the project is anticipated to be finished in 30 months.

In his remarks to the shareholders at the 63rd annual general meeting, N Gopalaratnam, the chairman of Seshasayee Paper and Boards Ltd, mentioned several initiatives the company has taken, such as a greater emphasis on green energy, the establishment of newer plants and processes for a reduction in emissions, a reduction in chemical consumption, and the pursuit of organic and growth opportunities to increase pulp and paper production.

Regarding the future of the paper sector, he predicted that domestic paper consumption will likely increase by 6% to 7% annually to reach 30 million tonnes by FY2026-27, with growth in organized retail commerce playing a significant role.

He claimed that India’s paper business has enormous growth potential.

The lack of wood and an increase in the import of paper at ‘nil duties’ from abroad, he claimed, had been major problems for the indigenous paper business.

He said that the government ought to take into account the paper industry’s long-standing request and make some of the nation’s degraded forest land and non-forest government land accessible for pulpwood plantation under cooperative arrangements.

As they increased from Rs 7,839 crore in FY22 to Rs 11,513 crore in FY23, imports of paper and paperboard have become a ‘major challenge,’ according to information released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics.

He noted that the duty-free import of paper makes domestic paper ‘non-competitive’ and imperils the long-term viability of the paper industry.

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