<b>Recycled Board Production Starts Year with a Thud</B>

Recycled paperboard production started this year with a sharp drop compared to figures the same time last year.

According to the American Forest and Paper Association, total recycled board production stands at 1.279 million tons, an 11.7 percent drop from figures the same time last year.

The sharp fall in recycled board production went along with the overall slide in paperboard production, which declined close to 11 percent for the month. The bleak figures reaffirm what many in the paper stock industry have been saying so far this year – a slowdown in demand by domestic mills due to high inventories is depressing paper stock prices.

Each individual segment of the recycled board industry posted a decline for the month. Recycled linerboard production posted the sharpest drop between the two months, with this January’s figure of 305,000 tons a 15 percent drop from the same time last year.

Meanwhile, total linerboard production posted a slighter 9.7 percent drop between the two years. While still a sharp drop, of the largest sub-groups in the linerboard section recycled linerboard realized the largest decline.

Recycled corrugated medium also dropped at a sharper rate than the medium industry in general. For January, production of the grade stands at 336,000 tons, a 12.8 percent drop from the prior January.

Meanwhile, total corrugated medium production stands at 792,000 tons, with semi-chemical, the other component of the medium industry, declining by 10.8 percent.

Recycled boxboard production, the most mature of the recycled board grades, showed the mildest decline for January. According to the AFPA, production dropped 2.2 percent to 228,000 tons for the month. Meanwhile, total boxboard production dropped a much sharper 8.4 percent for the month.