Recycled Board Production Drops Sharply

The production of recycled paperboard at domestic mills in January posted a sharp 2.4 percent drop from figures the same time last year. According to the American Forest and Paper Association production stands at 1.272 million tons, compared to last January’s figure of 1.304 million tons.

The drop is even more significant considering total paperboard production during the month climbed by 2.7 percent to 7.297 million tons.

A sharp drop in production figures was seen with both recycled linerboard and recycled corrugated medium. For recycled linerboard, production plummeted by 10 percent to 300,000 tons for January, compared to figures the same time last year.

During the same time total linerboard production moved up by 2.1 percent to 2.471 million tons.

Recycled corrugated medium also saw production slide during January, with this year’s figure of 312,000 tons down by 9.4 percent from figures the same tie last year. Total corrugated medium production declined a much slighter 0.2 percent. However, the other component of the medium sector, semichemical, posted a robust 7.2 percent increase between the two years.

The final component of the recycled paperboard sector, boxboard, was the one bright spot. This sector posted a 1.1 percent increase between last January and this January. For this year, January production stands at 220,000 tons.

While recycled boxboard production did improve, the growth was far less than total boxboard production, which climbed by 5.7 percent between last January and this January.