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ACCA 14 th General Meeting at Shenzhen , CHINA
ACCA Newsletters In order to reduce cost, she proposed that each issue of the Newsletter will in the future be distributed among members during ACCA meetings. Both Mr. Lai Yau Fai of HKCPMA and Mr. Frank Cheng of CTCCA expressed their support to help print the newsletters, and it is up to the Editor to evaluate and decide which option and facility to use. All ACCA members expected to send in early to Ms Tuti their articles for the next ACCA Newsletter. Country Report China ---Mr Wang Shanchuan reported the 3 aspects of the China 's corrugated as follows:
With such countermeasures adoption, Mr Wang Shanchuan expressed his confidence that the China 's corrugated case industry would achieve smooth and rapid development. Hong Kong --The corrugated industry is faced with various cost increases including the minimum labour wage increase about 15%, yet there is shortage of labour and energy. In addition, paper price had increased yet selling price of paperboards decreased. The RMB currency had appreciated about 2 to 3% last year, and is expected to appreciate another 2 to 3% this year. All these increased cost factors had resulted in some of their association members to re-locate their plants to inner parts of China such as Guanzi , Sichuan and Wulan areas. The two largest corrugated players in China , Lee & Man and Nine Dragons had increased their production and supplies, and this partly explained the softening of product prices. The current market trend is towards lower grammage for liners from 150 to 120 gm, while E-flute is gradually replaced by F-flute grading. India ---The industry growth over the last three years ranged from 8 to 10%pa, which correlated well with the country's GDP growth. A major contributory factor lies with the fact that the whole of the industry caters to the retail business which had been booming, and therefore, much packaging is used. Indonesia --- The 1Q of this year had been quiet, dropping by an overall of about 20% with the food and beverage industry still being the major customer. The total market production capacity expanded with the recent installation of 2 major plants, and 2 more are in the pipeline for another 200,000 mtpa to be ready in the next 4 to 5 months. More production plants had switched over from using diesel to coal firing boilers. Malaysia --- MACCMA stated that the local market consumption trended slightly lower but remained largely unchanged. The northern region of the country had 2 production plants merged while the central region saw the closure of 2 plants. Despite the reduced number of players, competition is still very keen. The recent increase in fuel and electricity costs made it harder for the individual industry enterprise to survive. Singapore — Even though the industry reported last year GDP growth was 6.4%, while the manufacturing sector contributed higher at 9.3% of the total GDP. However, corrugated industry indicated last year's market growth was only 1 to 2%. As for this year 2006, it is estimated growth would be + 2%. In fact the recent ICCA report predicted a drop of about 5% for the local market. Chinese Taipei --- Last year their local corrugated market dropped about 3%. The first 4 months of this year saw a drop of 2.8%, with many enterprises of the industry relocated to China and other part of Asia . Though the country overall GDP growth was 4.3%, manufacturing sector had dropped. Increase in gas and energy prices and the lack of volume are not helping the local market situation which is expected to remain per normal in the next 3 years. Thailand --- The original forecast GDP growth of 4.5 to 5.5 % would likely be reduced to 2 to 4.5% because of the various problems facing the country. The local corrugated market correlates at 1.2 times that of the country GDP. New investment from competition expects to add production capacity by 600,000 mtpa to the existing total market capacity of 3 million mtpa against the current market demand of 2.7 million mtpa. As with other regional countries, the local electronic industry is faced with the challenge of relocation to China or Vietnam .
Work Plan for Years 2006/2007
After the meeting as usual it will be follow with dinner and entertainment. During the dinner the host will exchange souvenir with its guest country members.
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Mr. Lai Yau Fai of HKCPMA, welcomed all participants, and apologized for postponing this Meeting which was originally scheduled to be held a fortnight earlier. He then led the participants on a one-minute silence as remembrance of the Yogyakarta earthquake victims reported in the morning news. Afterward Mr. Wang Shanchuan of CPF as Chairman of the Meeting per se welcomed all participants, and thanked Mr. Lai Yau Fai and Mr. Ma Wai Mo of HKCPMA for hosting the Meeting. 
