The recent figures from the Fibre Box Association show that shipments are slowly starting to improve. The improvement is coming while the overall economy has shown improvement.
For January, the most recently reported month, shipments stand at 31.969 billion square feet, a 0.5 percent improvement from figures the same time last year.
Leading the way was the South Central U.S. Shipments from that region climbed by 3 percent. The other region showing a strong jump between the two years was the Western U.S., which increased 2.8 percent increase between last January and this January.
The North Central U.S., on the other hand, languished for the month. January shipment levels stand at 3.960 billion square feet, a 2.4 percent drop from figures the same time last year. Other regions and shipment changes are the following: Northeast, down 1.6 percent; Southeast, down 1 percent; East Central, up 0.7 percent.
Along with a shipment increase, the consumption of containerboard at domestic plants climbed by 1 percent for the month to slightly more than 2.5 million tons.
The increase in consumption resulted in the inventory of containerboard at the end of January climbing a sharp 6.7 percent to 2.311 million tons from the previous month’s inventory level of 2.166 million tons.