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| Ashish De, vice-president (technical) paperboards and specialty papers division, said the present capacity was around 220,000 tonne which would be enhanced to 300,000 tonne by next year. |
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| Industry sources said that typically, investment in such an expansion will be in excess of Rs 350 crore. |
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| The capacity expansion will be undertaken keeping in mind the growth in the domestic market. Last year, the sale of value added paperboard alone grew by around 62 per cent. |
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| De said the packaging industry was directly proportional to growth in GDP. While the paperboards industry was expected to grow at 6-8 per cent, the growth in the value added segment would be more than 10 per cent. |
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| The growing sophistication of the Indian consumer was expected to accelerate the demand for high quality packaging for branded goods and the resultant demand for value added paperboards. |
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| Moreover, the rural market is also set to stage a dramatic growth and with increased penetration in the sector from the FMCG segment, the paper and paperboards division was also expected to grow. |
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| According to De, the potential sectors for growth were pharmaceuticals, food, bakery, high-end personal care products. The company planned to target these sectors with its food grade paperboard branded Cyber XL Pack. |
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| Growth will also come from the export markets such as south-east, Middle East and east-Africa primarily. The product footprints now extended to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, South Africa, Bulgaria, UAE, UK and Iran. |
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| However De said not much growth was expected from the developed countries as the markets were already saturated there. |
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| Around 20 per cent of the total production was being exported and exports during 2002-03 touched nearly Rs 100 crore. |
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| Also, the Asian region including Japan was poised to become a net importer of paperboards over the next few years. |
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| ITC has also mentioned in its latest annual report that the company was in the process of examining expansion opportunities, both greenfield and non-organic. |
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