Steady word, steady progress! In 2022, what are the new directions of China's paper industry?

　In the past year, the mainland papermaking industry has faced the impact of the supply chain brought about by the repeated global epidemic and the decline in freight capacity, the cost impact brought about by the rise in commodity prices, and the interference of many unstable factors such as the impact of the regional and sudden energy supply and demand gap formed in the transformation from the traditional energy era to the new energy era in China, and has insisted on promoting high-quality development, and the total supply has increased steadily, showing strong development resilience.

　　Year-on-year growth in the paper industry in the first 10 months of 2021

　　★ Paper and paperboard production 8.7%↑

　　★ Industry-wide operating income 16.8%↑

　　★ Total profit 22.4%↑

　　★ Total assets 3.3%↑

　　Among the 31 major categories of manufacturing in the mainland's national economic industry, the turnover growth rate of the papermaking and paper products industry ranked twelfth, and the total profit ranked tenth.

　　These data show that China's papermaking industry continues to maintain a thriving development trend in the world, and has also kept pace with the economic development of the mainland.

　　In the face of the 2022 that has arrived, the survival and development environment of the industry has not improved significantly, the world epidemic has superimposed on a century of changes, and the external environment has become more complex and severe and uncertain. The ineffective recovery of supply chains in major global industries has further increased the cost of global supply chains and exacerbated the contradiction between supply and demand of raw materials and energy.

　　At the Central Economic Work Conference, "steady words are the head, steady progress" as the general tone of economic work in 2022, which has outstanding significance in the current development environment and also points out the direction for the paper industry.

　　01. It is necessary to continue to comprehensively enhance the core competitiveness of China's papermaking industry.

　　At present, the situation of stable market demand has not changed, and enterprises should seize the opportunity to accelerate the process of digital transformation and promote industrial upgrading. Whether it is a new construction or a technological transformation project, we must pay attention to the improvement of production, energy, water and other efficiency, increase investment and use of new energy equipment, and accelerate the formation of a supply chain and industrial chain that is connected inside and outside, safe and efficient.

　　02. Regarding primary products, it is emphasized to "adhere to the priority of conservation and implement the strategy of comprehensive conservation".

　　The traditional development model of the paper industry is becoming more and more difficult to sustain, and only comprehensive conservation and efficient utilization can effectively alleviate the resource and environmental problems faced by the development of the industry. Among them, there are both the economical use of raw materials such as fiber in the paper industry, and the economical use of paper products in the downstream printing and packaging industry, which are all changes to be paid attention to in the new year.

　　03, to correctly understand and grasp the carbon peak, carbon neutrality.

　　For the paper industry, which accounts for 80% of fossil fuels, the challenges in which demand and production are still growing are unprecedented. In the next step, the development of the industry must ensure that the steady growth of output meets the supply, and at the same time complete the country's "double carbon" goal, and energy costs may face the problem of substantial growth. To ensure the orderly development of the industry, green and low-carbon transformation is the industry's inevitable and only choice.

　　The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Papermaking Industry and the Medium- and Long-term High-quality Development Outline" released not long ago has outlined a blueprint for the development of the mainland papermaking industry of great practical significance.

　　In the next step, we need to strengthen our confidence, lift our spirits, effectively change our development ideas, change the development mode, grasp the initiative, improve the quality and economic benefits of development, enhance the driving force of innovation, promote the development of green and low-carbon cycles, and gradually form a new pattern of reasonable layout, raw materials suitable for national conditions, products to meet domestic demand, and high industrial concentration, and strive to fully achieve the strategic goal of a papermaking power.