<B>Recycled Board Production Drops for Year</B>

The production of recycled paperboard declined last year from the previous year. According to the most recent figures from the American Forest and Paper Association recycled board production stands at 15.552 million tons, a 4.4 percent drop from 1999’s figures. The slide follows several years of steadily increasing production growth, and pointed to an overall softening in the U.S. economy.

December recycled paperboard production stands at 1.139 million tons, a sharp drop from December 1999’s production figure of 1.357 million tons.

The slide in recycled board production was felt across all three segments of the board industry, with recycled corrugated medium posting the sharpest decline.

Broken out by individual commodity groups recycled linerboard production dropped 5.4 percent to 3.887 million tons last year.

The production of recycled linerboard for December stands at 280,000 tons, a sharp drop from the previous month’s figure of 348,000 tons.

While recycled linerboard dropped, total linerboard production declined  between the two years. For last year linerboard production stands at around 21 million tons, a 4.5 percent dip from 1999’s linerboard production total.

Recycled corrugated medium posted the sharpest drop between 1999 and last year. Total production of the commodity for December stands at 290,000 tons, bringing production for the full year to 3.727 million tons, an 8.7 percent drop from 1999’s production total.

While recycled medium posted a sharp drop, total corrugated medium production declined a much smaller 3.6 percent for the year. The decline was caused almost exclusively by the fall off in recycled medium production as semichemical medium production, the other component of the medium industry, posted figures that were essentially flat between 1999 and last year.

Boxboard production, the most mature of the recycled board segments, posted the smallest dip between last year and 1999. For last year recycled boxboard production stands at 2.806 million tons, a 0.8 percent drop from 1999’s figures.

Meanwhile, total boxboard production declined a sharper 1.8 percent between the two years. Total boxboard production last year stands at 15.084 million tons.