Corrugated Shipments Climb in February

The shipment of corrugated products jumped by more than 3 percent for February from figures the same time last year.

According to the Fibre Box Association, shipments for the month stand at 29.926 billion square feet, a 3.1 percent increase from last February’s figure of 29.019 billion square feet.

The improvement for the month pushed the two-month shipment total to 61.894 billion square feet, a 1.7 percent increase from figures the same time last year. One note is that 2004 is a leap year, giving one additional day for February.

Broken out by individual region the North East and South Central were the biggest gainers, with the Northeast posting a shipment increase of 4.6 percent, and the South Central showing shipments climbing by 4.3 percent.

Every region posted gains for the month, with the Southeast, up 3.2 percent; the North Central increasing shipments by 2.5 percent; the East Central, up 2 percent; and the West, up 1.7 percent.

For the first two months the South Central U.S. posted the largest increase, 3.6 percent. Meanwhile, the North Central U.S. was the only region posting a decline between last year and this year, as shipments dipped by 0.1 percent.

The consumption of containerboard also posted strong numbers for both the month and first two months. For February, consumption stands at 2.276 million tons, a 4 percent increase from last February’s figure. For the first two months consumption stands at 4.78 million tons, a 2.4 percent increase from last year’s two-month total of 4.669 million tons.

Meanwhile, the inventory of containerboard at domestic plants at the end of February stands at 2.206 million tons, a 4.5 percent drop from the previous month. While declining, the weeks of supply on hand increased by 5.4 percent to 3.9 weeks of supply on hand.