Recycled Board Production Accelerates Decline

The domestic production of recycled paperboard continues to post steep declines, according to the most recent figures from the American Forest and Paper Association.

For September, production stands at 1.246 million. The figures for the month are a sharp drop from last September’s production total of 1.348 million tons of recycled paperboard.

As the U.S. economy starts to climb out of a sharp slowdown, many domestic paperboard mills have been taking significant amounts of capacity off line, many times permanently, as the U.S. forest products industry attempts to bring supply and demand into balance.

The production of recycled paperboard over the first nine months of the year also show some steep declines. For this year, the nine-month total stands at 11.482 million tons, a 5.6 percent decline from figures the same time last year.

While recycled board has been declining, for the most part the paperboard industry has been strengthening its position. Over the same period of time, total paperboard production posted a modest 1 percent drop, with the main reason for the swing to negative numbers being the dismal figures from the recycled paperboard component.

Broken out by individual commodity groups, all three sectors of the paperboard industry posted declines between last year and this year.

Recycled corrugated medium production for September reached 306,000 tons, bringing the nine-month production total down 13.2 percent from figures the same time last year.

Meanwhile, total corrugated medium production declined by 1.3 percent. The other component of the corrugated medium market, semichemical, saw production climb by 8 percent.

Recycled linerboard production also posted a sharp drop between last year and this year. For September, recycled linerboard production stands at 314,000 tons, bringing the nine-month total, on an annual rate, to 3.885 million tons. The actual production total so far this year is down a sharp 7.9 percent from figures the same time last year.

During the same period of time, total linerboard posted a drop of 1.1 percent.

The final component of the recycled paperboard industry, boxboard, saw the smallest decline between last year and this year. For September, production reached 197,000 tons, bringing the annual rate, year to date, to 2.505 million tons. For the first nine months production of recycled boxboard is down 2.6 percent from figures the same time last year.