The most recent figures from the Fibre Box Association shows the shipment of corrugated boxes for December stands at 30.609 billion square feet, a 1.2 percent decline from December 2003 figures. Despite the drop for the month total shipments for 2004 showed a fairly strong 2.8 percent increase. For the full year shipments stand at 390.528 billion square feet, compared to 2003’s shipment total of 379.908 billion square feet.
For the full year shipments increased in all six regions of the country, with the East Central and Western U.S., both posting the strongest increase at 3 percent.
Along with the decline in shipments, the consumption of containerboard at domestic plants dipped by 1.8 percent for December to 2.345 million tons. Despite the decline during December total consumption for last year increased by 3.7 percent to 30.271 million tons.
While shipments and consumption dipped, the inventory of containerboard at plants slipped by 0.4 percent to 2.355 million tons from figures the previous month. Despite the modest dip, the weeks of supply on hand help firm at 4 weeks.