US paper production and shipment statistics for April '16 released

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

Printing-writing paper

The total shipment of printing-writing paper declined sharply by 6% in April 2016 when matched with the same month a year before. The inventory levels of printing-writing paper were down marginally by less than 1% when compared with the previous month.

The April ‘16 coated free sheet (CFS) paper shipments decreased 4% when compared with the previous year. Uncoated free sheets (UFS) shipment declined modestly by nearly 3% during the month relative to shipments in April 2015. The UFS shipments have dropped for the first time, after rising for four months in a row.

Coated mechanical (CM) shipments during April ‘16 tumbled by 20% when matched with the same month in 2015. Uncoated mechanical (UM) shipments during April this year have dropped sharply by 6% when matched with Apr ‘15.

Meantime, UFS paper imports dropped sharply by 25% in March this year. Imports of CFS paper registered 19% decline year-on-year. UM paper imports dropped by 16%, whereas CM paper imports surged higher by 16% when matched with the previous year.

Kraft paper

The total kraft paper shipments during April this year have dropped by nearly 3.7% over same month the previous year to 137.8 thousand short tons. Out of this, bleached kraft paper shipments constituted 8.50 thousand short tons whereas the balance 129.3 thousand short tons accounted for unbleached kraft paper shipments. The total month-end inventories decreased to 76.2 thousand short tons. The overall kraft paper shipments during the initial four-month period of the year were down marginally by 1.1% when matched with the same period last year.

Containerboard production

The AF&PA statistics indicate that the US containerboard production in April this year was 2.6% lower when compared with the same month a year before. The month-on-month average daily production has increased by 1.9% during the month. The containerboard operating rate for April increased to 94.3% and the year-to-date operating rate of 94% was 1.6 percentage points lower compared to the same period in 2015.

Boxboard production

The US boxboard production has dropped by 3.6% in April 2016, when matched with the previous year. Also, when compared with the previous month, the April boxboard production was down by 6%. The production of unbleached kraft boxboard and solid bleached boxboard and liner production declined over the previous year. On the other hand, recycled boxboard production increased marginally when compared with April 2015.

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 percent of the U.S. pulp and paper industry and 50 percent 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.