Guangdong Paper Industry in 2022: Output Leadership, Rising Concentration, and Profit Recovery

Guangdong's Paper Output Remains About One-Fifth of China's Total

Guangdong has a solid foundation in pulp and paper technology and also shows clear strengths in developing a modern molded pulp products industry. In recent years, the province's paper sector has closely followed environmental protection policies, promoted energy-saving, low-carbon technical upgrades, and required companies to meet the latest national requirements and standards; the task of phasing out outdated production capacity was already completed at the start of the 13th Five-Year Plan.

According to statistics from the Guangdong Paper Industry Association, since 2016, output of major products in the province's paper industry has maintained a fluctuating upward trend. In 2020, Guangdong produced 24.3596 million tonnes of paper and paperboard for the full year, up 9.6% year on year, setting a new record in output scale.

As a major papermaking province, Guangdong has long held first place in China's paper industry. Since 2017, Guangdong's share of paper and paperboard output has followed a fluctuating upward path, and by 2020, its paper and paperboard output accounted for 21.6% of China's total.

Concentration in Guangdong's Paper Industry Keeps Rising

In terms of the output mix of major products, packaging paper remains the dominant product in Guangdong's paper industry. In 2020, packaging paper output in Guangdong was 17.8444 million tonnes, accounting for 73.25% of the province's total paper and paperboard output and making it the only sub-category to exceed 10 million tonnes; cultural paper and household paper output were 2.582 million tonnes and 1.265 million tonnes, representing 10.60% and 5.19% of the provincial total, respectively.

At the enterprise level, concentration in Guangdong's paper industry rose further in 2020, and the overall strength of key backbone companies continued to improve. As of 2020, Guangdong had 42 papermaking enterprises with paper and paperboard capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year or more; among them, 6 had capacity of 1 million tonnes/year or more: Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited, Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Limited, Dongguan Jianhui Paper Co., Ltd., Dongguan Jinzhou Paper Co., Ltd., Asia Symbol (Guangdong) Paper Co., Ltd., and Zhanjiang Chenming Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd.; these 6 companies produced a total of 819,000 tonnes of virgin pulp and 12.534 million tonnes of paper and paperboard, accounting for 51.45% of Guangdong's total paper and paperboard output.

Operating Efficiency in Guangdong's Paper Industry Rebounds

In terms of industry operating efficiency, since 2017, the main business revenue of Guangdong's paper industry has risen first and then fallen. In 2020, the province's paper industry generated revenue of 240.28 billion yuan, down 1.8% year on year.

As for total profit, after consecutive declines in 2018-2019, Guangdong's paper industry staged a strong rebound in 2020, achieving total annual profit of 14.627 billion yuan, up 22.1% year on year.

Source: China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378739.html