Aug 25, 2004. /Lesprom Network/. PanAsia Paper announced today a newsprint price increase of US$50 per metric tonne for its Asian export markets, effective October 1, 2004. Asian newsprint demand remains strong, supported by healthy economic growth. Based on World Economic Activity Asia-Pacific Consensus Forecast, Far East GDP will grow by 5.6% in 2004, compared to 4.3% in 2003. According to Resource Information Systems. Inc (RISI), Asian newsprint consumption will rise 5% and is attributed to higher newspaper pagination due to increased advertising spending. The total increase in Asian demand is projected to be 560,000 tonnes, as compared to 220,000 tonnes in 2003. Current indicators suggest that this trend will continue during the last quarter of the year and into 2005. “Although this is our fifth consecutive price increase, we are recuperating from historically low pricing levels that occurred during the global economic downturn and was further protracted than past cycles because of terrorism and SARS,” said PanAsia Paper’s Chief Sales Officer, Hannes Skisaker. “Newspaper producers have been struggling for the past 3 years. Now, just as demand improves and we begin to move our prices up, we meet further unexpected challenges due to rising costs; record high oil prices as well as rising transportation costs. It is this set of circumstances that is forcing us to continue to raise prices,” added Hannes. Pan Asia Paper Co. Pte Ltd, headquartered in Singapore, is a leading supplier of newsprint and other publication paper. World-class production facilities are located in Jeonju and Cheongwon in South Korea; Singburi in Thailand; and Shanghai in China, with a new mill site under construction in the Hebei province of China. The aggregated current capacity of PanAsia Paper’s mills amounts to 1,320,000 tonnes of newsprint and 135,000 tonnes of other publication paper. Capacity will reach 1,785,000 tonnes when the Hebei project is completed. PanAsia Paper is also the sole distributor in the Asian Pacific region for its two equal shareholders, Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and Norske Skogindustrier ASA and its affiliates.