AF&PA publishes US paper reports for Dec '14

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The Washington D.C.-headquartered American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) has released the production statistics for the month of December last year.

According to the statistics, the containerboard production was 5.3% higher in Dec ’14 when compared with the production during the previous month. Also, the total containerboard production has increased by 6.9% when compared with Dec ’13. The year-to-date output of containerboards by the country was marginally higher by 1.8% over the previous year. The operating rate for containerboard increased marginally from 94.3% in Nov ’14 to 94.7% in Dec ’14.

The total kraft paper shipments during December ’14 have recovered sharply by 11.9% over the previous month to 128.40 thousand tonnes. Out of this, bleached kraft paper shipments constituted 9.70 thousand tonnes whereas the balance 118.70 thousand tons accounted for unbleached kraft paper shipments.

AF&PA notes that bleached paper kraft shipments increased considerably by nearly 12.8% over the previous month while unbleached paper craft shipments improved by 11.90% in December ‘14. The cumulative kraft paper shipments during the entire year 2014 were 2.3% lower than 2013. The month-end inventories increased to 79.3 thousand short tons in Dec ’14.

The total shipment of printing-writing paper declined 4% in December last year. The Dec ’14 coated free sheet (CFS) paper shipments increased 1% when compared with the previous year. Uncoated free sheets (UFS) shipment dropped 8% during the month. Coated mechanical (CM) shipments during Dec ’14 jumped higher by almost 4% when matched with the same month in 2013.

On the other hand, the total boxboard production decreased 3.2% from those during Nov ’14 and by 2.6% over Dec ’13. The production of Recycled Boxboard decreased when compared to December 2013 and Nov ‘14.