Poddar Global is among the largest importers of newsprint in India with a substantial warehousing space to store the tons of newsprint that it imports. The company was launched by the Late Ram Karan Poddar, who worked as a journalist before venturing into the newsprint supply business 28 years ago. Today, Poddar Global is run by his son and successor, Sunil Poddar, who is the managing director and under whose supervision the company has charted unprecedented growth. The company has built a network of warehouses across Mumbai, Chennai, Vishakapatnam, Cochin, Kolkata and Delhi with a combined area spanning 3.75 lakh square feet and storage capacity of nearly 1.5 lac metric tons of imported newsprint. Indian Printer & Publisher met Poddar at the company’s head office in Pitampura, Delhi, for a discussion on the Indian newsprint industry as well as where Poddar Global stands in this fast-evolving market.
Newsprint procurement worldwide
Poddar Global imports newsprint from Canada, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Newsprint production takes place in factories that are close to the virgin forests in these countries, which are covered in snow for a quarter to three quarters of the year. The other process is recycling of newspaper to produce the newsprint. In places where newspaper collection rates are high, about 80-90% of the waste newspaper is channeled back to the recycling system for newsprint production.
In India, waste newspaper is recycled for newsprint production but it is done at a much lower scale in plants that are much smaller than those in countries like Korea, Malaysia, Germany and some other parts of Europe. This is primarily because newspaper is not easily available in large quantities owing to its use in several economical secondary packaging applications, such as protective inner cushioning in glassware packaging, economical stuffing material for newly made shoes, and various other unconventional uses. Poddar estimates around 40% of waste newspaper in India going into unconventional uses and he doesn’t see it changing anytime soon because selling it to the unconventional users fetches a higher price than selling it to recyclers that buy it for newsprint reproduction. The balance 60% gets recycled as newsprint.
Quality of paper in smaller Hindi editions
Poddar points out that many Hindi newspapers in northern India use this recycled newsprint as they service a market that is not particularly touchy about the paper or print quality unlike readers in the other parts of the country. According to him, Hindi newspapers with multiple editions across various small towns and cities in northern India often use better quality paper just for the cover page and while settling for an inferior quality recycled paper for the inner pages. This poor quality recycled newsprint comes out of the small recycled newsprint plants that are found across different parts of North India.
These publishers do not mind the additional cost they have to bear owing to the shorter lifespan of blankets on the printing rolls that get damaged faster when poor quality newsprint is used. Poddar says that many of these Hindi editions are printed far away from the sea ports and publishers are able to avoid the higher cost of imported newsprint by procuring poor quality locally recycled newsprint. He doesn’t see this situation continuing for too long as the market is evolving with a growing list of readers demanding better quality newsprint. Adding to this, the publishers will also feel the pressure of big brand advertisers who wouldn’t want their ads to appear on shabby paper.
According to Poddar, India presently imports 70% of its newsprint requirement and this figure is expected to go up in the future. There are several reasons for this—quality consciousness will increase in the Hindi newspaper market forcing newspapers to use better quality imported newsprint. The other stark reality facing many of the local recycled newsprint producers is the amount of pollution they cause on the rivers that could end up with their closure as stricter environmental laws come into force. Currently, India procures about 5% of the global supply of newsprint and this figure is gradually going up as consumption of paper increases in the country.
Summing up on why the newspaper industry is going through a rough patch in most OECD countries, Poddar shares that there is a major advantage that India has over these markets—low per capita income and a very good distribution system. “We’re able to deliver the newspapers to people’s homes at 6 a.m. in the morning at a very low cost. In comparison, the distribution cost is very high in the western countries; e.g. if newspaper is to be distributed to 100 houses, for somebody working about 2-3 hours to do the job, the cost would be around a hundred dollars for the job, which is a very high price.”
