<B>Recycled Board Production Slowing</B>

The production of recycled paperboard increased for June, compared to figures the same time last year, according to recent figures from the American Forest and Paper Association. For the month production stands at 1.338 million tons, an increase from last June's figure of 1.244 million tons.

The production of recycled paperboard for the first six months stands at 7.997 million tons, compared to last year's figure of 7.979 million tons, a 0.2 percent increase.

Broken out by individual commodity grades recycled linerboard production declined by 1.9 percent for June to 290,000 tons. While recycled linerboard posted a sharp decline, total linerboard production dipped a much smaller 0.5 percent for the month.

Recycled corrugated medium posted an even sharper decline for this year, compared to figures last year. Total production for June stands at 283,000 tons, bringing the annual rate, year to date, to 3.797 million tons. This is a 3.6 percent drop from 1999's figures.

While recycled medium fell sharply, total medium production increased by 1 percent as the other component of the corrugated medium market, semichemical, posted a 4.2 percent increase over the first six months.

The final component of the recycled paperboard industry, boxboard, was the only recycled board commodity that increased. For June, the figure stands at 232,000 tons, a 1.4 percent improvement from figures the same time last year. However, the increase was far less than the total boxboard production group, which grew at a much stronger 3 percent clip.