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Month in Statistics
U.S. PAPER AND BOARD PRODUCTION
U.S. production of paper and paperboard remained strong in October, imitating recent months' performances, according to the American Forest & Paper Assn. On an annualized, year-to-date basis, production reached 90 million tpy, down 0.9% from 1995. Total paper production for the first ten months of 1996 was down 2.4% from last year to 42.4 million tpy, while paperboard output was up 0.5% from year-ago levels to 47.5 million tpy. October production was up 3.4% from the previous month.
Among major grades, printing/writing paper shipments were down 4.3% from a year ago, newsprint production slipped 1.0%, and tissue was up 1.1%. Shipments of uncoated free-sheet were up 0.7%. Most grades continued their downward trend in October, but recycled paperboard was up 12.2% over October 1995. Total packaging and other papers were up 2.1% compared with last year. Containerboard inventories at mills and plants were down 9.6%. Both U.S. market pulp and woodpulp production were down from last year, 3.4% and 8.0%, respectively.
Canadian newsprint shipments totaled 789,000 metric tons in October, up 2.6% from October 1995, and newsprint mills operated at 96% of capacity. Canadian woodpulp shipments were down 3.2% from October a year ago to 8.3 million metric tons for the annualized year-to-date, with mills operating at 89% of capacity in October.
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