16/08/05 KUALA LUMPUR, (Bernama) -- Malaysia is gearing towardsself-sufficiency in paper products with the anticipation of more pulp andpaper mills coming on stream in the future.

The Sarawak state government is taking the lead to set-up a mega pulp millto produce 750,000 metric tonnes of pulp annually using Acacia mangiumplanned for 2009, said Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of NaturalResources and Environment, Datuk Sazmi Miah.

A new pulp mill based on oil palm empty fruit bunches as the raw materialswith an annual capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes using technology andequipment from China, will come on stream in Tawau, Sabah in 2007, hesaid.

There will be more smaller scale pulp mills based on oil palm empty fruitbunches to be established in Peninsular Malaysia in the near future withone of them to be located in Pekan, Pahang, he said at a press conferenceafter officiating the International Pulp and Paper Conference 2005 onbehalf of the Minister, Datuk Sri Adenan Satem, here Tuesday.

Earlier, reading the text of Adenan speech, he said Malaysia had to lookinto the use of non-wood fibre such as oil palm empty fruit bunches as itshardwoods were suitable to manufacture printing and writing papers.

However, these hardwoods are not suitable for paper grades which requirehigher strength properties for instance the kraft liner paper for makingcarton boxes.

He said Malaysia imported almost RM3 billion worth of pulp and paperproducts annually and the gap between production and consumption of paperproducts was expected to widen unless steps were taken to meet theshortfall.

He said the Asia Pacific region was forecasted to be the most importantconsumer of paper and paper products by 2013, accounting for about 65percent of the world's consumption.

He said Food and Agriculture Organisation predicted the worldwide demandfor paper and paperboard would increase by 3.1 percent annually up to theyear 2010, whereby demand would reach 440 million metric tonnes.

"We have not yet fully exploited the potential of non-wood materials thatare available or can be planted nationwide such as bamboo, kenaf bastfibre and bagasse," he said, adding that recycling paper mills could notmeet the requirement for high strength and quality papers demanded byconsumers such as electronic goods manufacturers.

He also pointed out that the country had yet to achieve 50 percentrecovery for the recycling of waste paper.

Meanwhile, Forest Research Institute Malaysia director general, Datuk DrAbdul Razak Mohd Ali, in a welcome address said Malaysia today had 19 pulpand paper mills but only five had a production capacity of over 100,000metric tonnes each.

"If all of these mills are producing at full capacity, Malaysia stillneeds to import 35 percent of paper and paperboard to fulfill its domesticrequirements, he said, adding that the lack of land for planting woodfibres for pulp and paper prompted the country to look for non-wood fibresto offset shortage of wood fibres.

He said Malaysia was blessed with lignocellulosic fibres from oil palmtrunks, fronds and empty fruit bunches as it had 3.8 million hectares ofoil palm plantation as well as more than 360 palm oil mills.

-- BERNAMA