Domestic Paper Stock Use Dips

The consumption of recovered fiber at domestic mills posted a modest decline over the first nine months of the year. The dip reflects the continued sluggishness in the paper market over the past year. For September, consumption stands at 2.911 million tons, unchanged from last September.

The figures for the month pushed the nine-month consumption figure to 26.428 million tons, a 1 percent decline from last year’s nine-month total.

While the figure is down slightly, a more promising sign is the decline in inventory of recovered fiber at mills. At the end of September, the inventory of recovered fiber stands at 989,500 tons, a 5.6 percent drop from the same time last year.

The decline in inventory levels has resulted in steadier buying of recovered fiber as mills are not sitting on high inventories of material.

While there is a modest dip in domestic consumption of recovered fiber, exports continue to be strong. At the end of August slightly more than 917,000 tons of recovered fiber were exported, a 4.4 percent increase from export totals the same time last year.