Corrugated Shipments Continue Upward Swing

The overall shipment of corrugated products continues to strengthen. According to the Fibre Box Association, shipments for May stand at 31.536 billion square feet, a 1.1 percent improvement from figures the same time last year. The figures for the month pushed the five-month total to 160.931 billion square feet, a 3.2 percent increase from figures the first five months last year.

The improvement for the month was driven by the sharp increase in shipments from the East Central U.S., which reported a jump of 3.7 percent in shipments between last month and last May. The North Central region also posted a healthy increase of 2.7 percent in monthly shipment totals.

On the downside, the Southeaster and South Central regions both posted declines for the month, down 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

For the first five months, all six reporting regions posted improvements between this year and last year. The biggest gainer remains the Western U.S., which posted a 4.2 percent increase in shipments over the first five months of the year. Other regions and their shipment increase are the following: Northeast, up 3.1 percent; Southeast, up 2.6 percent; East Central, up 3.7 percent; North Central, up 3.2 percent; and the South Central, up 2.7 percent.

Along with the increase in shipments, the consumption of containerboard posted a healthy 3 percent increase for May. For the month, consumption stands at 2.422 million tons. The figures for the month pushed the five-month consumption total to 12.437 million tons, a 4 percent improvement from figures the same time last year.