Recycled Board Production Slumps

The domestic production of recycled paperboard continues to slump. The decline follows an overall softening in the U.S. forest products industry. For July, production stands at 1.285 million tons, compared to last July’s figure of 1.295 million tons.

For the first seven months of the year recycled board production stands at 8.989 million tons, a 4.2 percent drop from last year’s seven-month production total.

While the production decline has created major problems for suppliers, the decline is far less than total board production, which dropped a sharper 7 percent between this year and last year.

The decline in recycled board production was seen in each of the three segments of the group – boxboard, corrugated medium, and linerboard.

Recycled linerboard production posted the steepest decline between last year and this year. For the first seven months the drop was 5.8 percent, with the annual rate, year to date, standing at 3.663 million tons.

While the drop was sharp, total linerboard production during the same time dropped a sharper 6.8 percent.

Recycled corrugated medium also posted a decline between the two years. Total production for July, 339,000 tons, pushed the annual rate, year to date, to 3.969 million tons, a 1.4 percent drop from figures the same time last year. While a decline, a promising note is that the decline was far less than total corrugated medium production, which fell 7.4 percent during the first seven months of the year.

Recycled boxboard production also declined between last year and this year. For this year production stands at 4.340 million tons, a 5.2 percent drop from figures the same time last year.

The drop was even more pronounced when total boxboard production declined a much slimmer 4 percent between last year and this year.