US corrugated
box shipments in July jumped 2.9% from a year ago, while containerboard
inventories grew 110,000 tons from the prior month, according to Fibre Box Assn
(FBA) and American Forest and Paper Assn (AF&PA) statistics released today.
Box
shipments in July totaled 30.749 billion ft2, up 2.9% from a year ago on the
same number of 21 "official" shipping days in both periods, according
to FBA. Year-to-date shipments are up 0.1% actual and 0.8% average-week,
adjusted for one less shipping day this year.
Mark
Wilde of Deutsche Bank said box shipments may have benefitted from a
"phantom day" this July, with FBA not counting Friday July 5 as a
"shipping day" but some box plants reportedly running on that day.
Containerboard
inventories at box plants and mills surged 110,000 tons in July to end the
month at 2.333 million tons. This would be more than the 77,000 ton average
increase over the past decade for July, according to analysts.
The
latest month's 110,000 ton jump in inventories followed June's 83,000 ton increase
for a 193,000 ton increase over the last two months, noted Chip Dillon of
Vertical Research Partners.
US
containerboard mill operating rates throttled back to 98.6% in July from 99% in
June and an average rate of 96.5% year-to-date, according to AF&PA.
Containerboard
production jumped 5.3% in July from a year ago, despite an 11.6% drop in export
liner and medium output. Year-to-date containerboard production is up 2.3%,
while export output is now down 0.6%, AF&PA reported.
