Paper and packaging: Follow one offering through the chain
Pulp and paper mills and converters making boxes, cartons, sacks and tissue
Follow one offering through the chain
A folding carton from Bhadrachalam board
Follow a printed carton from a farmer's eucalyptus plot in Telangana to a packed shop shelf.
Eucalyptus grown on farmers' fields
65,000 haITC plantation coverage, FY25The board starts as clonal eucalyptus, subabul and casuarina grown by farmers on their own land around ITC's Bhadrachalam mill in Telangana. ITC says about 65,000 hectares were planted in FY25, and over 25,000 farmers are in its FSC-certified plantations, from which it bought nearly 4.85 lakh tonnes of wood. IPMA says 97-98% of India's pulpwood comes from outside forests.1,2
Constraint Mills depend on wood grown nearby; ITC already draws nearly 10% of its wood from new areas in Odisha and Chhattisgarh (FY25). Tm TimberH₂O WaterN Nitrogen (ammonia)Wood productsUsed paper collected door to door
67,100 tdry waste collected by ITC WOWSome fibre comes back from households and offices. ITC's WOW programme had collected 67,100 tonnes of dry waste from 1,760 municipal wards, covering over 7 million households, by March 2025, and sorted paper is sold to recycling mills. Across India, 74-76% of paper output is made from recovered fibre (IPMA), while food and medicine cartons rely more on virgin fibre.2,3
Constraint Mixed, wet waste lowers fibre quality, and Indian mills top up local scrap with imports, so world scrap prices pass straight through. Tm TimberWaste and recyclingCooked and bleached into pulp
73 Mtworld wood pulp trade, 2024At the mill, wood chips are cooked with caustic soda in batch digesters, washed and bleached to bright, strong pulp; the spent liquor is burned in a recovery boiler for steam and power. Mills short of fibre buy market pulp instead, and world wood pulp trade reached a record 73 million tonnes in 2024, with new supply from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and China.4,5
Constraint Pulping needs large volumes of water and steam, so drought, effluent limits or a recovery-boiler outage can curb output. Tm TimberNaOH Caustic sodaH2O2 Hydrogen peroxideCaO LimeH₂O WaterWater and sanitationWood productsEuropean machines run the fibre line
1 Mt+ITC paperboard output a year, 2025Few firms can build modern fibre lines and board machines. Finland's Valmet won a 2020 order for a new bleach plant and an upgraded batch-cooking fibreline at Bhadrachalam, after supplying a board machine and a recovery boiler there. By March 2025 ITC's four paperboard mills turned out over 1 million tonnes a year, and it agreed to buy Century's 480,000-tonne Lalkuan mill.5,7
Constraint Large lines and spares come from a few European makers such as Valmet, Andritz and Voith, so expansions queue for their order books. St SteelNi NickelCr ChromiumStr Starch and cellulose derivativesMachinery and equipmentFormed and coated into boxboard
1.76 Mtpaper imports, April-December 2024The board machine lays several fibre layers into one sheet, presses it, dries it over steam-heated cylinders and coats it with clay and pigment for a smooth, printable face. Domestic mills face cheaper imports: India's paper and paperboard imports rose 20% to 1.76 million tonnes in April-December 2024, much of it virgin board from Indonesia, China and the rest of ASEAN (IPMA).6
Constraint Board making needs large amounts of steam from coal and biomass, while cheap ASEAN and Chinese board caps the prices Indian mills can charge. Kao Kaolin & claysTiO2 Titanium dioxideStr Starch and cellulose derivativesH₂O WaterTc Thermal coalWater and sanitationPrinted, cut and glued into cartons
16 kgpaper used per Indian a yearA converter prints the board on offset or gravure presses, varnishes it, die-cuts and creases it, and glues it into flat cartons for food, medicine and cosmetics brands. Demand has room to grow: Indians use only about 16 kg of paper each a year against a world average of 57 kg, and every extra kilogram a head adds about 1 million tonnes of demand (IPMA).2
Constraint Food-contact cartons need low-migration inks and coatings, and plastic-laminated board is harder to recycle under India's packaging EPR rules. Pig Organic pigmentsAdh Adhesives and sealantsPnt Paints and coatingsLLDPE Polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE)Plastic and rubber productsWhat the chain shows
Farm-grown pulpwood is India's quiet strength; the pinch points are water, imported machines and cheap Asian board.
Sources
- ITC grows plantation area by 30% in FY25 to boost wood sustainability India CSR, 2025
- Indian paper industry: overview Indian Paper Manufacturers Association, 2025
- Well-being Out of Waste ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division, 2025
- Global forest products trade and production show signs of recovery in 2024 FAO, 2025
- Valmet to supply new bleach plant and upgrade of batch cooking and fiberline to ITC's Bhadrachalam pulp mill in India Valmet, 2020
- Paper and paperboard imports surge 20% in Apr-Dec: IPMA Outlook Business, 2025
- ITC announces strategic acquisition of Century Pulp and Paper undertaking ITC Limited, 2025