Set on growth
Set on growth
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Khanna Paper began in 1985 as a family-owned paper mill in India. The company was founded by B.M. Khanna, and his sons Rahul and Saurabh joined the busines in the 1990s. Rahul and Saurabh currently lead the business today.
The company focuses on using recovered fiber in its product mix. Joe Passalacqua, commodity manager for Khanna Paper, says the company is one of the largest importers of recovered paper in India.
Khanna Paper’s mill is based in Amritsar, Punjab, and, according to the company’s website, the mill covers 80 acres, making it the largest single-location plant in India that consumes recovered paper. The company’s website reports that its annual production capacity is 500,000 tons. The mill includes four paper machines, deinking plants and an in-house captive power plant.
Passalacqua describes Khanna Paper as a growing business. He says the company currently imports about 30,000 tons of recovered paper per month from around the globe, including the United States, to make copy paper, packaging board and newsprint. Khanna Paper primarily sells those products in India, but Passalacqua adds that the company has its eyes set on expanding to additional markets.
Among the recovered paper grades it consumes, Khanna Paper focuses mostly on mixed paper and sorted office paper (SOP), as well as some coated book stock and sorted residential news, Passalacqua says.
“We’re very big on SOP,” he says. “We’re one of the largest consumers of SOP in the country. “SOP and high grades, all the mills are asking for it,” he says, adding that it seems like India’s economy is opening up more since the pandemic started. “We’ll be making more copy paper as [Indian] schools might be going back.”
He adds that the company uses some virgin pulp, too.
“We take about 1,500 tons a month for virgin pulp also, and we use that for brightness—copy paper needs a different kind of brightness,” he explains.
At the start of the year, Passalacqua said Khanna Paper had a hearty appetite to consume SOP in part because India’s economy was reopening since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“SOP and high grades, all the mills are asking for it,” he tells Recycling Today in mid-January. “We’ll be making more copy paper as [Indian] schools might be going back.”
But one challenge Khanna Paper has been working through, along with many other exporters and importers of recovered fiber, is ocean shipping backlogs. Passalacqua says he has noticed “packed” piers this year as well as rolled bookings and vessels not coming in.
As of mid-January, he also says India’s economy is “stronger” than it was in most of 2020. He adds that the nation in general has been industrializing more and has had a “growing economy” in recent years.
Although recently rising COVID-19 cases in India could adversely impact that nation’s economy this year, The Economic Times reports in mid-March that it expects India’s economy to grow by 12 percent this year following a 7.1 percent contraction in 2020.
As businesses reopen from COVID-19-related shutdowns, Passalacqua says he anticipates demand for Khanna Paper’s products, such as copy paper and board, to rise.
Editor’s Note: Recycling Today plans to run a longer version of this article in its May 2021 edition.
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Source: Recycling Today
Set on growth
<![CDATA[Khanna Paper began in 1985 as a family-owned paper mill in India. The company was founded by B.M. Khanna, and his sons Rahul and Saurabh joined the busines in the 1990s. Rahul and Saurabh currently lead the business today.The company focuses on using recovered fiber in its product mix. Joe Passalacqua, commodity manager for Khanna Paper, says the company is one of the largest importers of recovered paper in India.Khanna Paper’s mill is based in Amritsar, Punjab, and, according to the company’s website, the mill covers 80 acres, making it the largest single-location plant in India that consumes recovered paper. The company’s website reports that its annual production capacity is 500,000 tons. The mill includes four paper machines, deinking plants and an in-house captive power plant. Passalacqua describes Khanna Paper as a growing business. He says the company currently imports about 30,000 tons of recovered paper per month from around the globe, including the United States, to make copy paper, packaging board and newsprint. Khanna Paper primarily sells those products in India, but Passalacqua adds that the company has its eyes set on expanding to additional markets.Among the recovered paper grades it consumes, Khanna Paper focuses mostly on mixed paper…