The shipment of corrugated products posted a modest 0.9 percent increase during September, turning around steady to steep shipment declines that have hampered the corrugated box industry through most of this year.
According to the most recent figures from the Fibre Box Association, shipments for September stand at 31.947 billion square feet, compared to last September’s figure of 31.675 billion square feet.
Despite the improvement between the two years, the increase masked the fact that the improvement could be attributed to the increase in the number of shipping days this September.
Broken out by the average weekly shipments, corrugated box shipments were down an average of 4 percent between last year and this year.
While shipments on a gross total were up, the biggest improvement was seen with shipments from the western region. The region saw shipments jump by 6.2 percent for September. Other regions posting improved shipment levels include the South Central U.S., which saw shipments climb by 2.8 percent; and the North East, which posted a 0.5 percent shipment increase for the month.
While shipments improved for the month, the figure for the first nine months of the year show shipments down 1.2 percent to 282.251 billion square feet.
While overall shipments declined, there were pockets of improvement throughout the country. The Western U.S. and the South Central U.S. posted 0.8 percent increases in shipments through the first nine months of the year.
Meanwhile, shipments from the Southeast, the largest region in the country, posted the steepest decline, 3.4 percent, between last year and this year.
Along with an improvement in shipments, the consumption of containerboard for the month increased by 0.6 percent to 2.491 million tons. The figure for the month pushed the nine-month production total to 21.651 million tons, a 1 percent drop from last year’s nine-month figure.
The inventory of containerboard at corrugator plants also increased for the month. At the end of September the inventory level stands at 2.339 million tons, a 1 percent increase from inventory levels the previous month.
Despite the increase, the domestic corrugator plans saw the weeks of supply on hand declined by 7.1 percent to 3.9 weeks, compared to figures the previous month.