Paper production in Japan will likely rise to a record high this year, reflecting an information technology-led economic recovery, industry officials said Tuesday.
Production of paper and cardboard totaled 15.76 million tons in the first half of this year, up 4.8 percent from the same period a year earlier.
With production rising on a year-on-year basis in June for the seventh consecutive month, it is likely that output this year will set a new high, the officials said.
In the January-June period, production of paper for use in print publications rose a strong 9.4 percent due to brisk demand from mobile phone companies for brochures and manuals.
Demand for cardboard has grown thanks to increased use in packaging for shipping personal computers.
Paper mills are operating at capacity to keep up with brisk demand, and they expect substantial improvements in earnings on price rises for fiscal 2000 ending in March.
For example, Oji Paper Co., Japan's largest paper manufacturer, expects an unconsolidated pretax profit of 45 billion yen for fiscal 2000, up three times over the previous year.