<B>FBA Sees Slowing Shipments, Consumption</B>

The Fibre Box Association reported a modest increase in the shipment of corrugated products. For October, the FBA reports shipments moved up 0.6 percent to 36.245 billion square feet.

The increase in shipments were mixed, however, with the Northeast and East Central both posting declines between last year and this year.

The biggest gainer for the month was the Southeast, which saw shipments jump 2.2 percent. Other gainers included the West, up 1.4 percent; the North Central, up 1.3 percent; and the South Central, up 0.9 percent.

While shipments posted a modest increase for October, total shipments over the first ten months of the year declined. For 2000, shipments stand at 337.625 billion square feet, a 0.3 percent drop from last year.

Broken out by individual regions, shipments from the Northeast dropped by 3.2 percent; the South Central, down 1.6 percent; and the West, down 0.7 percent.

Over the first ten months shipments from the Southeast increased by 1.7 percent; shipments from the East Central increased 1 percent; the North Central, up 1.3 percent.

The consumption of containerboard at domestic mills dipped for October, according to the FBA. For October, total consumption stands at 2.749 million tons, a 0.6 percent decline from figures the same time last year.

For the first ten months of the year consumption stands at 25.800 million tons, a 0.6 percent drop from 1999’s 10-month total.

Meanwhile, the inventory of containerboard at corrugator plants stands at 2.476 million tons, a 4.3 percent decline from the previous month. An additional piece of promising news is that the weeks of supply on hand dipped between October and the previous month. The weeks of supply is at 4 weeks of supply, compared to September’s weeks of supply on hand total of 4.2 weeks.