Corrugated Shipments Accelerate Decline

The shipment of corrugated products continues to decline, with more recent figures showing an even steeper drop than figures over the past several months.

The Fibre Box Association shows corrugated shipments dropping by 5.4 percent for August to 31.092 billion square feet. The loss was seen throughout the each region of the country, with the Southeast posting the steepest decline between the two years, a drop of 8.9 percent. Other regions ranged from the Northeast and West, both dropping by 6.8 percent; to the East Central, declining by 2.1 percent.

For the first eight months of the year shipments were only slightly more upbeat. For this year shipments stand at slightly more than 250 billion square feet, a 1.5 percent drop from figures the same time last year.

The biggest decliners over the first eight months of the year are the Northeast, dropping by 3.6 percent between last year and this year, and the Southeast, declining 3.4 percent between the two years.

The South Central U.S. and the West were two regions that saw an improvement between last year and this year, with shipments up 0.5 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Reflecting the continued problems in the corrugated market, the consumption of containerboard at domestic plants dropped a steep 6.3 percent for August, compared to last August. Actual totals for the month, 2.341 million tons, pushed the eight-month figure to 19.159 million tons, a 1.2 percent decline from last year’s eight-month consumption total of 19.390 million tons.

With shipments and consumption both declining, the inventory of containerboard at plants at the end of August stands at 2.317 million tons, a 3.6 percent decline from inventory levels the prior month. While inventories dipped, the weeks of supply on hand held at 4.2 weeks.