PAPER importers have reported high losses in the final quarter of the 2008-2009 fiscal year, despite prices decreasing by up to 30 percent.

“Sales of all types of paper are down about 10pc in 2009 so far, compared to normal sales,” said U Aung Myo, a director of Decoland, which has 90pc of the copy paper market and 50pc of the overall paper market in Myanmar. The company sells about 360 tonnes of copy paper a month.

He said that paper prices began decreasing in August 2008 because of lower oil prices and the global economic crisis – causing significant losses for Decoland.

“As fuel prices went down, production costs decreased. And paper producers needed to raise cash quickly, so they lowered the paper prices,” he said. “We had to clear [old] stock [because prices decreased] and we lost about K500 million within two months. We have not been seeing any profit until now.”

U Aung Myo said demand for wood free paper – used to make notebooks – was far below previous years.

“Normally in February and March wood free paper demand increases by up to 90 percent but this year we still haven’t got any large orders,” U Aung Myo said. “Factories that produce notebooks … haven’t ordered much this year because they are waiting for further paper price decreases.”

He said that copy paper sales were comparable to 12 months ago but predicted the market would decline in the future as offices shifted to electronic communication and record storage.

“For the copy paper market, I think, it will shrink in Myanmar in the near future. Most offices still use a lot of paper now but copy paper will be substituted for information technology sooner or later – although it may take some time,” he said.

But some sectors of the market, such as news print, are expected to grow in coming years.

‘‘I think that the news print market will expand,” the official said, adding that the price of imported newsprint was now about US$700, down from $1100 in October 2008.