Good afternoon,
The permanent closure of Opal Australian Paper’s white paper plant in Australia is a big story in more ways than one.
Just like global car companies (remember Holden?), global paper manufacturers are focused on the main game – their overall profitability.
So it’s no surprise that Japan’s Nippon Paper pulled the plug on a part of its Australian operation that was mired in industrial trouble, environmental issues and seemingly low margins, which no doubt drove its campaign to initiate a series of anti-dumping measures against imports from several countries.
Large-scale paper mills are expensive to set-up and operate so it’s likely that all future supplies of A4 copy paper will be imported with wholesale pricing to be the subject of much discussion.
Opal spent a lot money on building the Reflex brand so will be interesting to see how the newly-invigorated competition responds to the ‘demise’ of the locally-made market leader.
Office Products News will be taking a late summer break next week. For further updates on this story and other news, check the website www.officeproductsnews.com.au
Regards,
Barrie Parsons
Editor & Publisher
[email protected]