The shipment of corrugated products continue to post sharp declines, with the figures for May, the most recently reported month, showing a decline of 3 percent.
According to the Fibre Box Association, shipments for May stand at 31.040 billion square feet, compared to 31.989 billion square feet the same time last year.
For the first five months of the year shipments are down 1.1 percent to 155.066 billion square feet.
For May, shipments were down in each of the six regions, with the North Central U.S. posting a steep 8.4 percent drop between last year and this year. Other regions posted declines between 0.3 percent in the South Central, to 4.5 percent in the Southeast.
For the first five months of the year the Northeast showed the largest drop, with its shipment total of 22.732 billion square feet a 3.2 percent drop from figures the same time last year.
While the shipment total overall is down the first five months, both the South Central U.S. and the West Coast managed to post improvements, the South Central increasing 0.7 percent, while the West climbed 1.5 percent.
Along with the decline in shipments, the consumption of containerboard at domestic plants dropped by a sharp 4.4 percent for May. According to the FBA, consumption for the month stands at 2.339 million tons, compared to last May’s figure of 2.447 million tons. For the first five months the decline was much smaller, with this year’s consumption level of 11.889 million tons a 0.4 percent drop from last year’s five-month total.
The inventory of containerboard at corrugator plants dipped by 0.4 percent to 2.415 million tons at the end of May from figures the previous month. Despite the decline in inventory levels, the weeks of supply on hand climbed by 7.5 percent to 4.3 weeks for May.