Recycled Board Production Continues Decline

The production of recycled paperboard continues to decline, although the decline is far less than the overall paperboard production decline.

According to recent figures from the American Forest and Paper Association, August recycled board production stands at 1.372 million tons, compared to last August’s production total of 1.291 million tons.

The figures for the month pushed the eight-month total to 10.354 million tons, a 3 percent drop from figures the same time last year.

While the figure is down for the first eight months, total paperboard production dropped a much sharper 5.7 percent during the same time.

Broken out by individual commodity grades, production of recycled linerboard dropped 3.4 percent this year compared to figures the same time last year. Total linerboard production during the same time dropped a steeper 5 percent.

Recycled corrugated medium, on the other hand, showed a modest increase between last year and this year. For August, production stands at 350,000 tons, pushing the eight-month figure up 0.4 percent from figures the same time last year.

While recycled medium strengthened, total medium production dropped 5.3 percent during the same time, with the other component of the medium industry, semichemical, posting a steep 9.2 percent drop between last year and this year.

The final component of the recycled paperboard industry is recycled boxboard. For August, the figured stands at 221,000 tons, basically unchanged from the previous month. However, the figures for the first eight months are down 5.5 percent from total recycled boxboard production during the same time last year.