US Box Shipments steady in July
US box shipments and containerboard inventories were pretty stable in July, down just 3.5% to 28.48 billion ft2 compared to a year ago, but, if you adjust the figures to allow for one less shipping day, they were 1.3% higher, according to the Fibre Box Association (FBA).
YTD shipments through July were exactly the same as last year with no adjustments needed as there were the same number of shipping days.
Box Plant and Mill containerboard inventories increased to 2.242m tons, up by 87k tons in July compared to June. Mark Wilde of Deutsche Bank reports that this compares with an average containerboard increase of 84k tons in July for the past decade and a 95k average increase for the past five years.
Average weeks of supply at box plants and mills increased to 3.4 weeks in July, compared to 3.1 weeks in June.
The American Forest and Paper Association have reported that US containerboard mill operating rates jumped to 98.1% in July, an increase of 1.2 points compared to June's 96.9% rate.
Posted Date: 16th Aug 2011