US corrugated box shipments up 0.9% in Oct, board inventories fall 29k tons
US corrugated box shipments managed to show slight growth in October but containerboard inventories at box plants and mills showed a slightly smaller seasonal decline than was expected.
The Fibre Box Association have reported that corrugated box shipments in October stood at 30.220 billion ft2, which is up 0.9% from the same time last year (both periods had the same number of shipping days), however, they also point out that Oct last year was quite flat in comparison to 2009.
Containerboard inventories at box plants and mills fell by 29k tons in October to 2.230 million tons, with the 10 year average drop being 44k tons.
Containerboard inventories dropped by 32k at box plants but showed a small increase at mills.
YTD corrugated box shipments are up 0.5%, but if we adjust it to take into account the extra shipping day in the first 10 months of this year, there is no growth at all.
US containerboard mill operating rates fell to 95.1% in October, down from 96.0% a year ago.
Containerboard production in October was down 3.3% from last year.
Posted Date: 21st Nov 2011