More Paperboard Manufacturers Announce Price Hikes

Caraustar Industries, Inc.  and Rock-Tenn both announced plans to raise their prices by next month.

Caraustar announced it will raise prices on all its uncoated recycled paperboard grades by $50 per ton. The increase will be effective with shipments beginning June 17.

Rock-Tenn Co. also announced it will hike all the paperboard grades it produces by $50 a ton. The price hike will begin with shipments effective June 17.

The price increase applies to both paperboard and corrugated medium.

Spokesmen for both companies cited the sharp increase in recovered fiber prices as reasons for the increase.

Caraustar noted that the increase will help the company recover from increases in recovered fiber, energy, freight, benefits, insurance and other operating costs that have occurred over the last few years.

David Dreilbelbis, executive vice president and general manager of the Paperboard Group, said, "These increases are necessary to recover the recent fiber increases and all the other cost increases, including energy, that have been absorbed by our mill operations over the past two years."

The decision by both these companies to raise their finished product prices follows announcements by a number of other large paperboard mills this week that they were raising their prices.

The price increase has been long expected. With capacity cuts over the past several quarters, more paperboard operations are running with sharply reduced inventory levels.