Russian printing houses began to buy paper from China and Turkey

Russian printing houses have found a replacement for paper from European countries, now they are buying materials in China and Turkey. About it informs newspaper Izvestia with reference to the Union of Printers of St. Petersburg.

In particular, Pavel Melikhov, General Director of Krasnogorsk Printing House, reported on paper purchases in these countries. According to him, 35% of the coated paper is supplied to the company from China, in Turkey the printing house purchased the first batch of products in 2023.

Also, paper from China is bought by the Printing Master organization. The Garant printing house also has an interest in the products, its owner Sergey Zyuganov said.

Market participants, Izvestia writes, consider it logical to enter new countries. The Union of Printers of St. Petersburg did not rule out that, in addition to China and Turkey, deliveries from Indonesia may also be of interest to Russian printing houses.

At the same time, market participants point to a number of problems in working with new suppliers. Vladimir Maslikov, Development Director of Printing Matter, noted that paper from China can go to Russia for about 6-8 months. Also, suppliers from China set a large volume of products, the minimum for the purchase. Because of this, Russian printing houses have to unite and place a common order, and then distribute it among themselves upon receipt in Moscow, Melikhov said.

Because of this, Russian printing houses cannot control the quality of products, Zyuganov adds. According to him, there was a case when a pungent smell of chemicals came from a batch of paper. Irina Ivkina, executive director of the Union of Printers of St. Petersburg, believes that it will take a lot of time to establish uninterrupted supplies. At the same time, the industry may face problems in the future when repairing equipment, since 90% of equipment is from unfriendly countries, she added.

Paper shortage in Russia arose in 2022 against the background of the imposition of sanctions against the country and the suspension of the supply of products from European countries. In particular, cooperation with Russian printing houses stopped Finnish-Swedish company Stora Enso, Finnish UPM, Sappi and Polish-Swedish Arctic Paper. All of them produce coated paper. The shortage led to a significant increase in prices. The printing houses said that the cost of paper has been increasing by 7-10% every month since the beginning of the year, Izvestia writes.