AF&PA publishes US paper shipment statistics for May 2016

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The Washington D.C.-headquartered American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) has released the production and shipment statistics for the month of May this year. The monthly figures suggest marginal decline in U.S printing-writer paper shipments. Also, shipments of coated free sheets and kraft papers dropped during the month. Meantime, the shipment of uncoated free sheet remained essentially flat during the month.

The total shipment of printing-writing paper declined considerably by 4% in May 2016 when matched with the same month a year before. The inventory levels of printing-writing paper declined by 2% when compared with the previous month.

The May ‘16 coated free sheet (CFS) paper shipments dropped marginally by 1% when compared with the previous year. Uncoated free sheets (UFS) shipment remained essentially flat, dropping by 0.5% during the month relative to shipments in May 2015. It must be noted that the UFS shipments had dropped sharply by 20% during the month of April this year. Coated mechanical (CM) shipments during May ‘15 declined heavily by 18% when matched with the same month in 2015. Uncoated mechanical (UM) shipments during May this year have dropped sharply by 7% when matched with May ‘15.

The total kraft paper shipments during May this year have decreased modestly by nearly 1.3% over same month the previous year to 138.0 thousand short tons. Out of this, bleached kraft paper shipments constituted 7.0 thousand short tons whereas the balance 131.0 thousand short tons accounted for unbleached kraft paper shipments. The total month-end inventories increased to 79.2 thousand short tons in May ’16.

The AF&PA statistics indicate that the US boxboard production dropped by 2.5% in May 2016, when matched with the previous year. However, when compared with the previous month, the May boxboard production was up by 5.9%. The production of unbleached kraft boxboard and recycled boxboard production decreased over the previous year. However, the production was up when matched with April 2016. The solid bleached boxboard and liner production dropped when compared with May 2015.

According to statistics, the US containerboard production in May this year was 1.3% higher when compared with the same month a year before. The month-on-month average daily production has increased by 2.0% during the month. The containerboard operating rate for May increased to 95.6% and the year-to-date operating rate of 94.3% was 1.5 percentage points lower compared to the same period in 2015.

Shipment statistics-April ‘16

The total shipment of printing-writing paper declined considerably by 6% in April 2016 year-on-year. The inventory level was down by 1%. UFS paper shipments dropped by 3% when matched with April 2015. The CFS paper shipments too were down by 4%. UM paper shipments in April this year dropped sharply by 6%. CM paper shipments were down sharply by 20% over the previous year. The total boxboard production in April was down by 3.6% from the levels of April 2015. Recycled boxboard production rose during the month when compared with April 2015. On the other hand, containerboard production in April was down by 2.6% year-on-year. The kraft paper shipments totaled 137.8 thousand short tons.

The UFS imports in April this year were down sharply by 20% when compared with a year before. Imports of CFS papers dropped 11% during the month. UM paper imports registered 3% decline year-on-year. Imports of CM increased marginally by 1% over the previous year.

About AF&PA

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) is the national trade association of the forest products industry, representing manufacturers of approximately 80% of the U.S. pulp and paper industry and 50% of the wood building material capacity. AF&PA was formed on January 1, 1993 by the merger of the National Forest Product Association and the American Paper Institute.

AF&PA's primary work is public policy advocacy at the international, national, state and local levels. The Association also serves as the forest products industry's primary statistical clearinghouse for manufacturing, production and capacity data.