JAKARTA, Indonesia (From The Jakarta Post) -- The capacity of pulp mills will increase from 7.93 million tons to 10.43 million tons per year in February when PT OKI Pulp & Paper Mills (OKI) starts the production of its new pulp factory with a 2.5 million-ton production capacity, the Industry Ministry has said.

Meanwhile, national paper production stands at 12.98 million tons per year, the ministry said in its statement on Monday.

With that, Indonesia is the ninth biggest pulp producing country and the sixth biggest paper producer in the world, according to the Indonesia Pulp and Paper Association (Apki).

The commodities also serve as the seventh largest foreign currency reserve contributor at US$5.38 billion in 2015 and $3.79 billion from January to September last year.

Industry Ministry agriculture industry director general Panggah Susanto said just like South American and East Asian countries, the pulp and paper production capacity in Indonesia has a chance to expand due to the availability of vast land for planting trees as well as non-wood raw material to make pulp and paper, like oil palm empty fruit bunches.

"With about 11.3 million hectares of oil palm plantations, apparently we have lots of oil palm empty fruit bunches," he said Monday.

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Join Jim Thompson on the 2nd Annual Papermakers Mission Trip to Guatemala, 22 - 29 July 17. Build houses, talk about the pulp and paper industry. For more information, email jthompson@taii.com with "Guatemala" in the subject line.