<b>Domestic Paper Production Declines</b>

The production of paper through the first two months of the year dropped. Similar to the paperboard industry, paper mills in the United States reported sharp drops in production levels. For the first two months of the year paper production stands at 7.187 million tons, compared to last year’s two-month figure of 7.568 million tons, a 5 percent drop between the two years.

All key segments in the paper industry posted declines between the two months. The production of printing and writing papers dropped 5.8 percent between the two years to 4.151 million tons.

Newsprint production also posted a decline between the two years. For 2001, the two-month production total stands at 1.175 million tons, a 5.2 percent decline from last year’s figures.

The other two segments of the paper industry, tissue paper and packaging and other paper, did not have production figures available for February.

The difficulty in the paper market also was realized with the steep fall in market pulp shipments over the first two months. Total domestic market pulp shipments dropped by 10.7 percent over the first two months to 1.195 million tons.

Declines occurred throughout each segment of the pulp industry, with sulfate pulp down 9.9 percent; bleached sulfate down 8.4 percent; unbleached pulp down 44.3 percent; and sulfite bleach and unbleached, down 70.4 percent.

The production of wood pulp also declined between the two years. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, wood pulp production dropped 8.9 percent over the first two months to around 9.7 million tons.

A slightly positive sign has been the increase in exports of wood pulp while the import of pulp from outside the United States declined by a similar amount.