The domestic shipment of corrugated products continues to decline as the slump in the forest products industry reduces demand, production, and generation.
The most recent figures from the Fibre Box Association shows shipments for September at 30.834 billion square feet, a 5.4 percent drop from last September.
The decline for the month pushed the nine-month shipment total to 287.517 billion square feet, a 5 percent drop from figures the same time last year.
Broken out by individual regions, the largest decline came from the Southeast, which saw shipments drop 7.6 percent for the month, as well as down 6.3 percent the first nine months.
Along with the decline in shipments, the consumption of containerboard at domestic plants dropped. For September, consumption dipped 6.4 percent to 2.329 million tons. For the first nine months consumption dropped 6 percent to 21.751 million tons.
With shipments and consumption declining, the inventory of containerboard at corrugator plants moved down 0.6 percent at the end of September from figures the previous month. The weeks of supply on hand at the end of September stands at 4 weeks, compared to August’s supply of 4.5 weeks.