Last minute bid to open up supply.

 

Dealer groups Office Choice and Office Brands together with GNS Wholesale and the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association have banded together to urge the federal government to temporarily suspend anti-dumping duties on imported A4 copy paper due to a shortage of supply created by industrial disruptions to production at Opal Australian Paper’s Victorian manufacturing plant. 

 

The trio has written to the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, seeking his urgent intervention to temporarily suspend anti-dumping duties on paper imported to Australia to open up supply.

 

The minister and his predecessor have approved a series of recommendations by the Anti-Dumping Commission for levies to be placed on A4 copy paper from Brazil, China, Thailand and Indonesia. 

 

In October, the ADC’s recommendation of a 25.5 per cent dumping margin in respect of paper exported from Indonesia by Tjiwi Kimia, a supplier via Paper Force (Oceania) to Complete Office Supplies, was signed off by the current minister.

 

A PR statement from the dealer groups, GNS and ALNA stated: “Due to unforeseen circumstances outside of their control, hundreds of office products stores and newsagents across Australia are expected to run out of paper products over the coming weeks. This will impact thousands of small and medium enterprises, educational institutions and consumers.” 

 

A spokesperson for the group added: “Everyone remembers the toilet paper shortages. We fear a repeat of this fiasco for paper products if the government doesn’t step in now to open up paper supplies.”

 

Paper supply to run out before Christmas

 

As OPN reported last week, Opal Australia Paper’s manufacturing plant in Victoria's Latrobe Valley is preparing to stand down up to 300 workers ahead of Christmas and has flagged the potential for permanent job losses because of a timber shortage.

 

Opal Australian Paper's Maryvale paper mill, near Morwell, has sent letters to unions representing its workforce outlining the plan.

 

According to a report by the ABC, the company has told the unions it will run out of supply for its white paper manufacturing sometime around December 23. 

 

The ABC reported that Opal Australian Paper blamed the move on Supreme Court injunctions on its supplier, the Victorian Government-owned timber company VicForests.