JAKARTA (From news reports) -- Indonesia on Monday said that the accusations of pulp and paper dumping on the country have been wrongly made, while forcasting a higher industry growth for this year.
Chairman of the Indonesian pulp and paper association Aryan Warga said that the accusations made by the United States, South Korea, Australia and Pakistan were not valid as they have wrongly used Malaysian reference prices, which is higher than that in Indonesia.
Indonesian producers were accused of providing subsidies to their exported products, he said.
Despite the accusation, the chairman said, Indonesian pulp and paper industry growth was forecast to accelerate at a faster pace this year, at 5 percent.
He attributed the growth to the growing demand from the global market and the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary polls, which require paper votes.
Indonesia produces 16 million tons of paper and 11 million tons of pulp annually. In 2017, the industry contributed 5.8 billion U.S. dollars to the Indonesian revenue, according to the association.
Indonesia is among the world's top ten pulp producers and also ranked the sixth biggest producer of paper commodities, it said.
China, Japan, South Korea, India and Saudi Arabia are the export destinations of Indonesia's pulp and paper.
