The domestic paper industry calmly face the international "paper" (I)

I. Recognition of the current state of development of China's paper industry 1. The internationalization of the domestic market is the biggest feature of China's paper industry.
The internationalization of the domestic market shows:
(1) In terms of products, China imports large amounts of pulp, paper and paperboard, and paper products each year. In 1999, China imported more than 12 million tons of the above three types of products, used foreign exchange of 5.6 billion U.S. dollars, and imported paper and paperboard accounted for 18.5% of the total consumption. It can be seen that the historical import volume has shown an obvious increasing trend, and the import dependency has continued to increase. improve.
(2) In terms of equipment, key equipment for major technological transformation is basically imported from abroad.
(3) With respect to funds, foreign investment has been booming. In the first three years of the “Ninth Five-Year Plan” period, infrastructure and technical reform projects have invested a total of 27 billion yuan, of which investment from abroad accounted for four-fifths of the total investment.
Internationalization is even expressed in the economic benefits of the company. When the foreign market is good, foreign companies will have less export or dumping to China, and the benefits of domestic enterprises will be better. When the foreign market is weak, foreign companies will occupy the Chinese market at a low price, and the efficiency of domestic enterprises will be poor. The year 1995 was the best year for the world's paper industry, including China. In 1997, foreign markets were not good. Chinese companies were affected by the low prices and even dumping of foreign products. The situation was very difficult. The benefits of China's paper industry are affected by the world market, "the world is cool and hot here."
The internationalization trend is irreversible. This is determined by the relative concentration of papermaking resources in the world and the global characteristics of paper products consumption. As a country with a lack of forest resources but a large population, China cannot meet the needs of social development without importing foreign products. A profound understanding of this point will help us to correctly understand many issues faced by China's papermaking industry. For example, whether we need to introduce foreign capital, whether we want to engage in economies of scale, whether we want to invest in factories where foreign resources are abundant, and how to treat technological equipment. How to treat anti-dumping and so on. Recognizing the characteristics of the internationalization of the domestic market, it is possible to correctly grasp the development ideas of the Chinese paper industry.
2. While "internationalization" promotes the development of China's paper industry, it also poses a threat to the survival and development of state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises.
The decade since the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" has been a decade of rapid development of China's paper industry and a decade of continuous internationalization. In the ten years, China not only introduced a large number of advanced equipment and technologies from abroad, it also shortened the gap between China and the world's paper industry. At the same time, it also introduced a large amount of foreign capital and established some larger joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises. The establishment of these enterprises has played a significant role in relieving the shortage of high-grade paper products in China. However, with the continuous development of foreign investment in China, it has brought great competitive pressure on domestic enterprises, especially the main force of China's paper industry, state-owned large and medium-sized paper companies.
At a high-level seminar for paper-making companies, some companies proposed that some foreign-funded enterprises will use loans from domestic banks to carry out project construction after they enter China. This is to take domestic money, domestic market, and domestic enterprises, hoping that relevant parties can Pay attention to this matter and propose countermeasures.
More experts pointed out sharply that the future of China's paper industry is foreign and private. Smell this view, so that state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises feel a crisis, in the future where are the positions of state-owned enterprises?
In the face of internationalization, state-owned large and medium-sized paper-making companies are in a dilemma.
3. Although the government and enterprises have taken active measures, they are still not enough to meet the severe challenges of international competition.
Faced with the trend of globalization, the Chinese government and enterprises have adopted a series of measures to promote the rapid development of China's paper industry. The papermaking industry has been listed as a key structural adjustment industry by the State Light Industry Bureau, and the paper industry and sugar industry have only been included in the technical transformation discount loan program that is supported by the government. A group of large state-owned enterprises are accelerating the pace of technological transformation and strive to create a situation that can compete with foreign products in several key varieties within a few years.
However, compared with foreign companies' initiatives, the development of China's paper industry is still far from enough. Even if it is the newsprint that the country has supported in recent years, the annual production capacity in the country is still less than 1.4 million tons; while in foreign countries, a large newsprint mill can produce more than 1 million tons per year, and the economies of scale are significant. (to be continued)