Kazakh office paper manufacturer suspends operation due to limited supply of resources from Russia - media

ALMATY. April 6 (Interfax) - A plant manufacturing office paper in Kazakhstan has suspended operations due to a limited supply of resources from Russia, the state agency Kazinform has reported, citing the plant's press service.

"The plant Goida.kz in Nur-Sultan, which has a capacity of 3.6 million packs of A4 paper a year, has temporarily suspended its operations due to shortage of resources. The managers believe the situation is temporary, that it will stabilize in May, and that the plant will resume operations," the report said.

The enterprise buys resources in Russia and Finland.

"The company is considering other resource supply options besides Russia, which is the main supplier. They are China and India," the report said.

The plant is now working at 25% of its full production capacity (150,000-200,000 packs a month) and is manufacturing only 50,000-75,000 packs of office paper. Half of the plant's staff have taken vacation without pay due to the suspension of operations.

Kazakhstan has only two plants that cut and package office paper: the companies Qagaz Ordasy (capacity of three million packs of A4 paper a year) and Goida.kz (3.6 million packs a year). Both plants provide only five percent of domestic consumption.

It was reported that most of the resources in the form of paper rolls for cutting and packing office paper are manufactured in Russia and Finland, but Russian plants do not sell paper rolls to Kazakh companies directly. They sell them through their representatives in Kazakhstan (the companies Litan and Reservsnab Plus), who have limited their sales.

According to earlier reports, there are price hikes and a high demand for office paper in Russia following the halt of supplies by European manufacturers to Russia of white paper and chemicals, in particular, sodium chlorate, which are needed for the production of bleached pulp.

Kazinform has reported that the prices on A4 office paper in Kazakhstan increased by an average of 67% in March.